Your complete guide to starting a side hustle in Australia

Got an idea that could earn you extra income, but not quite sure where to begin?

Our free Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Side Hustle walks you through the practical steps involved, from choosing your idea and getting set up to finding customers, managing your money and understanding your tax obligations.

Whether you want to earn a little extra on the side or test an idea that could become something bigger, this guide will help you get started with fewer question marks.

Your side hustle might be small. The tax still counts.

Once your side hustle starts earning money, it can affect your tax position even if you also have a regular job.

That means keeping track of what you earn, what you spend and how much tax you may need to pay. It is not the most exciting part of starting something new, but leaving it until tax time is usually worse.

TaxTank helps you manage your side hustle as you go, so you can spend less time wondering about tax and more time seeing where your idea takes you.

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To download the Beginner’s Guide to Starting a Side Hustle, please enter your name and email address and we will send you a copy to your email address.

Know where you stand before tax time

Your employer may already withhold tax from your salary, but that does not automatically cover the extra income from your side hustle.

TaxTank brings your PAYG income and sole trader activity together to calculate your estimated overall tax position.

As your income and expenses change, TaxTank updates the result so you can:

You do not need to calculate everything yourself. TaxTank applies the Australian tax rules in the background.

Everything you need to manage your side hustle

You can now manage your side hustle seamlessly with auto invoicing, business reporting and integrated logbooks, as well as smart tax tools to manage deferred losses and the ATO rules to offset tax.

Send invoices and track payments

Create and send invoices, then match payments from your connected bank accounts so you can see what has been paid and what is still outstanding.

Track income and expenses

Bring transactions into TaxTank through eligible bank feeds, categorise business expenses and create rules for regular transactions.

Keep your receipts together

Attach receipts and supporting documents directly to your transactions instead of hunting through emails and folders at tax time.

Manage GST and BAS

If you are registered for GST, TaxTank tracks the GST collected and paid and prepares the information needed for your BAS.

Claim vehicle & home office expenses

Keep business vehicle records, complete your logbook and record working-from-home hours using the built-in Home Office Diary.

Manage assets and depreciation

Record business equipment, calculate depreciation and manage assets within the small business pool.

Track business loans

Keep business loan balances, repayments and interest connected to the activity they relate to.

Manage more than one idea

Got more than one side hustle on the go? Sole Tank lets you manage up to six sole trader businesses operating under your ABN.

Include foreign business income

If an overseas client pays you for sole trader work, TaxTank can convert the income to Australian dollars and include it in your estimated tax position.

Sole Tank is just $108 per year

That is equivalent to $9 per month, paid annually.

Your subscription includes the tools to manage up to six sole trader businesses, and the price does not increase when your side hustle earns more.

You can also add Work Tank if you want to connect your PAYG income and work-related deductions with your sole trader tax position.

See why Australians use TaxTank

Starting a side hustle already gives you enough to think about. TaxTank helps keep the income, expenses, invoices, records and tax side organised from the beginning.

“I recently joined Tax Tank, I have two small businesses and Tax Tank is affordable and easy to use once you learn the basics. The online support has been phenomenal, thank you Nicole. Everything was explained to me in an easy to understand manner. Any problems that have come up, usually my errors, the team helped me sort them out quickly and efficiently. Tax Tank has a great invoicing system and I can easily upload all my receipts for purchases and don’t have to keep photocopying and storing receipts anymore. I highly recommend giving Tax Tank ago.”

Sharon Anning

“Tax Tank has given me confidence to run my small business with ease and transparency. The incredible women who run this business have been absolutely amazing to work with and are friendly, professional and go above and beyond. Its a breeze to navigate and thats coming from someone who's genius zone is with people not on computers. I recommend them to everyone, they have seriously turned working for myself into a dream. The freedom and empowerment I've gained, now managing and thriving in my business is all thanks to Tax Tank. The ability to manage everything in one place creates ease and takes all the confusion out of something that has caused me fear and anxiety in the past. Hats off to the creators of Tax Tank, outstanding business and service!! If you aren't already all over Tax Tank for your business then you need to get onboard! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!”

Bianca Young

“I switched from using Hnry as I was sick of not being able to get support for days at a time and I found it an uphill battle to get all of my expense claims through. Especially the ones that I thought were obvious as a sole trader. I like that I can allocate my income and expenses and keep an eye on how much tax I need to put aside. Now I can earn interest on that money instead of paying it to the ATO early.”

Susa Åua

Start your side hustle with fewer tax surprises

Your side hustle may begin with one client, one product or one good idea. TaxTank can grow with you as your income, expenses and business become more established.

Keep your records organised. Understand how your extra income affects your tax. Know where you stand throughout the year.

You don’t need to know tax. You just need TaxTank. It knows the rules, so you don’t have to.