Sole Trader or Company? The Non-Resident Seller's Version (2026)
Part of the guide: How to structure
A non-resident individual can hold an ABN. The entitlement in the ABN Act is written for “you”, the GST law’s definition of an entity starts with “an individual”, and goods delivered to Australian buyers from stock in a fulfilment centre are supplies connected with Australia, which is the limb a non-resident qualifies under. No Australian company, address or tax file number is needed. And the question that usually comes with it, whether to set up a company first, has a different answer for a non-resident than for a resident: on the Australian side a company changes almost nothing. The ABN test, the GST test and the treaty position are identical for a sole trader and a company, and the rate gap that drives the domestic answer mostly isn’t there.
The domestic version of this question is about leaving profit in a company at 25% instead of paying 32%, 39% or 47% on it as an individual; our resident article and the sole trader vs company calculator are built on those resident rates. A non-resident’s arithmetic is different at every step. Below: whether an individual can hold an ABN, what stays identical whichever structure you use, why income tax asks about a permanent establishment before it asks about a rate, what the rates are if Australia can tax you, and the three places where structure genuinely bites.
| Sole trader (non-resident individual) | Company | |
|---|---|---|
| ABN | Yes: supplies connected with Australia | Yes: same limb, a different ABN |
| GST registration | Connected sales may exceed A$75,000 → register, remit 1/11th | Identical |
| Income tax with a treaty and no PE | A$0: the treaty’s “enterprise” includes an individual’s business | A$0 |
| Income tax if Australia can tax the profit | 30% from the first dollar to A$135,000; 37%; 45% | 30%, or 25% as a base rate entity |
| Liability | Personal, for every debt | Limited |
| Identity evidence | Two certified current documents, one primary | Certified certificate of incorporation + director identity |
| A new Australian Pty Ltd | The one option that creates an Australian income tax bill, plus a resident director |
(General information for FY 2026–27, not tax advice for your circumstances. The statute, the ABR’s non-resident pages, the ATO’s rate tables and the UK treaty text were read on 12 October 2026; the ATO’s latest published foreign-resident table is headed 2024–25 and applies to later years, and its latest company table is 2025–26. The A$75,000 GST threshold is not indexed and may change.)
1. Can a non-resident get an ABN as an individual?
Yes. Section 8(1) of the ABN Act says: “You are entitled to have an Australian Business Number (ABN) if: (a) you are carrying on an enterprise in Australia; or (b) in the course or furtherance of carrying on an enterprise, you make supplies that are connected with the indirect tax zone.” The section is addressed to “you”, which in this legislation means any entity, and the GST Act’s definition of entity reads: “Entity means any of the following: (a) an individual; (b) a body corporate …” An individual is first on the list.
Nothing in the entitlement asks where the individual lives. The ABR’s own sole-trader page says “Individuals carrying on an enterprise are entitled to an Australian business number (ABN)”, and its page for businesses outside Australia says non-residents may be entitled “if they’re: carrying on or starting an enterprise in Australia (or making supplies connected with Australia’s indirect tax zone)”. That bracket is the limb an overseas seller uses. A supply of goods is connected with Australia “if the goods are delivered, or made available, in the indirect tax zone to the recipient of the supply”, so an individual who ships stock to a fulfilment centre or 3PL here and sells it to Australian buyers is making connected supplies in the course of an enterprise, and is entitled under paragraph (b). You do not need to be carrying on an enterprise in Australia, and you do not need an Australian company, an Australian address or a tax file number.
What an individual does need is identity evidence. The ABR’s non-resident page: “Individual non-residents must provide certified copies of 2 current documents for tax purposes. One must be a primary document.” Primary documents are a foreign or Australian passport or birth certificate; secondary documents are a national photo identification card, other foreign government identification, a driver’s licence (its address must match the home address on the application) or a marriage certificate, which only evidences a name change and does not count as the second document. A TFN is optional: “Providing a TFN isn’t required by law, but makes the application process quicker”, and if you supply one the documents aren’t needed at all. Without one, the documents, a short statement of your Australian business activities and the ABR’s cover sheet must arrive within 43 days of the online application or it is refused. The document rules and the end-to-end timeline are in their own articles. One small change worth knowing: the ABR’s page, updated on 18 September 2026, now gives the Non-resident Registrations Team’s postal address as PO Box 3373, Penrith NSW 2740.
2. Sole trader or company: what stays exactly the same for a non-resident seller?
Every Australian test that decides whether and how you register is written for “the entity”, and an individual is an entity. The ABN entitlement, the GST registration turnover test, the 1/11th remitted on taxable sales, the standard-registration requirement once goods are warehoused here and the 47% withholding on business sales without an ABN are the same for a sole trader and a company. A company gets a different ABN, not a better one.
The GST registration rule is section 23-5: “You are required to be registered under this Act if: (a) you are carrying on an enterprise; and (b) your GST turnover meets the registration turnover threshold.” Its note removes any doubt about who “you” is: “It is the entity that carries on the enterprise that is required to be registered (and not the enterprise).” So:
| Test | Sole trader | Company |
|---|---|---|
| ABN entitlement | s 8(1)(b), supplies connected with Australia | Same |
| GST registration | Connected sales may exceed A$75,000 (current or projected) → register within 21 days | Same |
| GST on sales | 1/11th of the price, less credits on Australian costs, including the import GST you paid as importer | Same |
| Registration type | Standard (on an ABN) where goods are in Australia when sold; simplified is unavailable | Same |
| Selling to Australian businesses | 47% withheld if no ABN is quoted on a supply over A$75 | Same |
| Tax invoices, BAS | Issued and lodged under the ABN | Same |
What the GST system counts is sales, not structure. If your connected sales as an individual are A$180,000, your GST position is the same A$180,000 of connected sales in a company. The GST registration check asks the same questions either way.
3. The income tax question comes first: treaty, permanent establishment — and it applies to individuals too
Before any rate matters, Australian income tax asks whether it can tax the profit at all. The ATO’s page for foreign residents doing business here puts it in one sentence: “As a resident of a country that has a tax treaty with Australia, your income from business carried on through a permanent establishment in Australia is generally subject to tax in Australia. Any other business income is generally not taxable in Australia.” That sentence is addressed to “you”, any foreign resident, and the treaties themselves say the same thing about individuals explicitly.
Readers sometimes assume the business-profits article of a treaty is about companies, because it speaks of an “enterprise”. It isn’t. The Australia–UK convention, which follows the standard model, defines its terms in Article 3: “the term ‘person’ includes an individual, a company and any other body of persons”; “the term ‘enterprise’ applies to the carrying on of any business”; and “enterprise of a Contracting State” means “an enterprise carried on by a resident of a Contracting State”. A UK resident individual running a business is therefore an enterprise of the United Kingdom, and Article 7(1) applies to her exactly as it applies to a UK company: “The profits of an enterprise of a Contracting State shall be taxable only in that State unless the enterprise carries on business in the other Contracting State through a permanent establishment situated in that other State.”
Whether a permanent establishment exists is a facts question, and for a marketplace seller it is usually about people rather than pallets. Article 5(5) of the same treaty says an enterprise is not deemed to have a permanent establishment “merely by reason of … the use of facilities solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery of goods”, or “the maintenance of a stock of goods … solely for the purpose of storage, display or delivery”. Stock in a third-party fulfilment centre is that. Someone in Australia who habitually concludes contracts in your name is a different matter; our permanent establishment article draws the line. The consequence for the structure question is simple: with a treaty and no permanent establishment, the Australian income tax on the trading profit is A$0 for the individual and A$0 for the company. Nothing about incorporating moves it.
The ATO’s page adds one line for individuals that matters to service providers rather than goods sellers: “If you provide services as an individual you will need to pay income tax on the earnings if the income is attributable to your fixed base or if you were present in Australia for more than 183 days.” If you fly in to run a stall or install what you sell, that line applies to you and not to a company; selling goods from a warehouse, it doesn’t arise.
Without a treaty, the domestic rule applies to both structures: “If you are from a country that does not have a tax treaty with Australia, income from an Australian source is generally taxable in Australia”, and the ATO itself notes that “you may need professional advice to work out whether the income you earn from an international transaction has an Australian source”. Hong Kong is the common non-treaty case for our readers; our Hong Kong article covers the source question. It is only there, or where a permanent establishment exists, that the rates in the next section are reached at all.
4. If Australia can tax the profit: 30% from the first dollar versus 30% or 25%
A foreign resident individual pays, under the ATO’s published table, 30 cents in the dollar from the first dollar to A$135,000, then A$40,500 plus 37 cents to A$190,000, then A$60,850 plus 45 cents above that. There is no tax-free threshold and, as the ATO states, no Medicare levy. A company pays 30%, or 25% if it is a base rate entity. Up to A$135,000 of Australian-taxable profit, the individual and the company are at the same 30%, or five points apart if the company qualifies for 25%. The seven-to-twenty-two-point gap that makes the resident decision mostly does not exist.
Side by side, with the resident scale for contrast:
| Taxable profit band | Resident individual (incl. 2% levy) | Non-resident individual | Company |
|---|---|---|---|
| A$0 – A$18,200 | 0% | 30% | 30% / 25% |
| A$18,201 – A$45,000 | 17% | 30% | 30% / 25% |
| A$45,001 – A$135,000 | 32% | 30% | 30% / 25% |
| A$135,001 – A$190,000 | 39% | 37% | 30% / 25% |
| Over A$190,000 | 47% | 45% | 30% / 25% |
The domestic article’s logic is that a resident saves A$700, A$1,400 or A$2,200 per A$10,000 left in a company, depending on their bracket. Run the same sum for a non-resident below A$135,000: at the company’s 30% rate the saving is nil; at 25% it is A$500 per A$10,000, and only on profit left in the company and later distributed as an unfranked dividend to a non-resident, which has its own withholding. Above A$135,000 the gap reopens, seven points and then fifteen or twenty, which is where a company starts to matter for a seller whose profit Australia can actually tax.
Sam sells from a Sydney 3PL, lives in Hong Kong, and has A$40,000 of profit which, on his facts, has an Australian source. As a sole trader: 30% from the first dollar, A$12,000. Through a company at 30%: A$12,000. Through a company that is a base rate entity at 25%: A$10,000. At A$200,000 of Australian-source profit the picture changes: A$60,850 plus 45% of A$10,000 is A$65,350 as an individual, against A$60,000 at 30% or A$50,000 at 25% in a company. The company earns its keep only in the second case, and only because there is no treaty to switch the tax off first. The base rate entity test, the full tables and the withholding rates on dividends, interest and royalties are in our non-resident tax rates article.
5. Where structure really bites: liability, the platform account and the identity paperwork
The things a company changes for a non-resident seller are mostly not tax. A sole trader is, in the ABR’s words, “legally responsible for all aspects of the business, including debts”; a company’s owner is not. The marketplace account is verified in one entity’s name, and the ABN belongs to that entity, so changing structure later means a new ABN, a new GST registration and re-verification. And the “company” a non-resident is usually thinking of, a new Australian Pty Ltd, is the one option that creates an Australian income tax bill.
Liability. Unlimited personal liability is the oldest reason to incorporate and it is unchanged by where you live. A product recall, a customs penalty, an unpaid freight bill or a consumer claim lands on the individual as a sole trader. If that is your reason for a company, the right company is usually the one you already have at home, which can hold an Australian ABN in its own name with no Australian entity, director or address; our Amazon company article sets that out.
The platform account. At the time of writing, each major marketplace asks the same question at sign-up and verifies the answer. Amazon’s Australian registration guide tells sellers: “If you operate as an individual or your business isn’t incorporated, select ‘None, I am an individual’”, and distinguishes individual sellers (photo ID and proof of address) from “Business Sellers (if you have a registered business with a legal entity)”, who also supply “an official business registration extract such as ABN (Australian Business Number) or ACN (Australian Company Number)”. Etsy’s seller verification says to “enroll as an individual or sole proprietorship if you haven’t registered your business as a legal entity”, and notes that most of its sellers are individuals or sole proprietors. eBay offers a personal account for “individuals who are not selling through a registered business” and a business account for “registered business entities or sole proprietors who intend to sell on eBay as a company”. All three accept an individual. The cost is in changing your mind: the account was verified against one entity, the ABN was issued to that entity, and the GST registration sits on that ABN. Move from yourself to a company a year in and you apply for a new ABN, register the company for GST, and re-verify the platform account with the company’s documents, while the old ABN and registration are cancelled. Decide the entity before you apply, not after.
The paperwork. An individual’s ABN application needs the two certified documents in section 1. A foreign company’s needs “a certified copy of a certificate of incorporation or registration from the relevant authority in its country of origin”, the TFN or certified identity documents for “up to 3 non-resident directors”, uncertified documents for any others, and the names of its top twenty shareholders. More documents, more certification, more things that can mismatch inside the 43 days.
The new Australian Pty Ltd. This is the structure most likely to be suggested to a non-resident and the one most likely to be wrong. A company incorporated in Australia is an Australian tax resident and is taxed here on its worldwide profit, so a treaty seller who would otherwise owe A$0 of Australian income tax creates a 25% or 30% liability by choosing it. It also needs at least one director who ordinarily resides in Australia, a director ID for every director before appointment, and ASIC registration and fees; our non-resident director article covers the seat that has to be filled. Nothing about an ABN or GST registration requires it.
Priya lives in Manchester and sells homewares through a marketplace from stock in its Sydney fulfilment centre: A$180,000 of Australian sales and A$40,000 of profit on them in the year.
| A. Priya, sole trader | B. Priya’s UK Ltd | C. A new Australian Pty Ltd | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ABN | Yes: individual, supplies connected with Australia | Yes: foreign company, same limb | Yes: Corporations Act company |
| GST | May exceed A$75,000 → standard registration; 1/11th of A$180,000 = A$16,364 before credits | A$16,364 | A$16,364 |
| Australian income tax on A$40,000 | Treaty, stock is storage and delivery, no PE → A$0 | Same → A$0 | Australian resident company → A$10,000 at 25% or A$12,000 at 30% |
| Liability | Personal | Limited | Limited |
| Identity evidence | Two certified documents | Certificate of incorporation + director identity | ASIC incorporation, resident director, director IDs, then the ABN |
Columns A and B give the same Australian answer. Whether Priya should trade through her Ltd is a question about UK tax and UK liability, for her UK accountant. Column C is the only one that changes the Australian number, and it changes it upward.
Where it’s worth getting help
If you sell from a fulfilment centre and have no one in Australia acting for you, the individual path is open and most sellers can walk it: apply as yourself, send two certified documents with the cover sheet inside 43 days, register for GST on the ABN when connected sales approach A$75,000.
The judgment calls are these:
- The entity, before the application. The ABN, the GST registration and the platform verification all attach to one entity; choosing it after the fact costs a second application and a cancelled first one.
- The treaty and permanent establishment read. Whether your country has a treaty, whether anyone here has authority to conclude contracts for you, and, without a treaty, whether the profit has an Australian source, decide whether section 4’s rates are ever reached.
- The certification. Which certifier, which translation service, and whether the name and address on each document match the application exactly; the ABR refuses, not delays, at day 43.
- The Pty Ltd suggestion. Whether anyone proposing an Australian company has worked out that it creates an Australian income tax resident and a resident-director obligation that the individual or the home-country company does not have.
That’s the difference between doing it and doing it right the first time: the seller whose ABN was issued to the right entity on the first application, versus the one who incorporated on advice meant for residents, lodged twice, and now files an Australian company return for profit a treaty would have left at home.
If you’d like that looked at properly, our initial assessment form scopes it in about twelve questions, including your country, your structure at home and where the stock sits, and our ABN application service handles the identity package for an individual or a company so it is right the first time.
FY 2026–27. General information, not tax advice for your circumstances. The ABN Act, the GST Act, the ABR’s non-resident pages, the ATO’s foreign-resident and company rate tables and the Australia–UK convention text were read on 12 October 2026; platform account descriptions are quoted from the platforms’ own help pages at that date and their labels change. The A$75,000 GST registration turnover threshold is not indexed and may change; confirm the current figure.
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