Delivery apps, and bosses who say "just get an ABN" — what's legitimate, what's sham contracting, and how it affects your visa and tax.
More and more student jobs come with the line "you'll need an ABN". Sometimes that's legitimate gig work. Often it's an employer dodging minimum wage, super, and insurance — with you carrying all the risk. Learn to tell the difference before you agree.
There's a sentence that should make you pause instantly in any job conversation in Australia:
"You'll just need to get an ABN."
Sometimes it's legitimate. Often, it's the cheapest trick in the book — and international students are its main audience.
An ABN (Australian Business Number) makes you a business. Food delivery and rideshare platforms genuinely work this way: you choose your hours, use your own vehicle, and can work across platforms. In exchange you give up the employee safety net — minimum wage, superannuation, sick leave, workers' compensation. That trade can be acceptable if you make it knowingly.
A restaurant offers you kitchen shifts, Tuesday and Thursday 5–11pm, their kitchen, their rules — and asks for an ABN invoice instead of putting you on payroll. That's sham contracting. The law looks at the substance of the arrangement, not the paperwork: if they control when, where, and how you work, you're an employee, and the ABN is a costume.
What they save: the difference between the $31.19/hr casual minimum and whatever flat rate they offer you, plus 12% super, plus insurance. What you carry: all of it.
The 2026 Migrant Justice Institute survey of nearly 10,000 migrant workers — 80% of them international students — found two-thirds paid below the legal minimum, and sham contracting sharply rising as the delivery method. This isn't a rare scam. For student-heavy industries it's closer to the default business model.
You have more power than you think:
If you choose platform work with open eyes: free ABN from abr.gov.au, a simple earnings-and-expenses ledger, 15–20% of income set aside for tax, GST registration if you do rideshare, and an honest calculation of your post-cost hourly rate. Delivery hours count toward your 48-hour fortnightly cap — the app's records are exactly the kind of data Home Affairs can request.
And one bright line: never work under someone else's account. Renting an account is identity fraud with your visa as the stake.
Employees work under a TFN: the employer withholds tax, pays at least the minimum wage ($24.95/hr, or $31.19 casual from 1 July 2025), pays 12% super, and covers you for workers' compensation if you're injured. Contractors work under an ABN: nothing is withheld, no minimum wage applies, no super is paid for you (in most cases), no workers' comp — you are a one-person business. Neither is 'better'; they're legally different, and the difference is who carries the risk.
If someone sets your shifts, tells you how to do the work, provides the equipment and the workplace, and you work only for them — you are an employee, whatever the paperwork says. A cafe, restaurant, cleaning company, or retail shop telling you to 'get an ABN' for ordinary shift work is almost certainly sham contracting, which is illegal under the Fair Work Act. The 2026 Migrant Justice Institute survey found sham contracting surging among international students precisely because it looks official and moves all the cost onto you.
Genuine platform gig work (food delivery, rideshare where your visa and licence allow it) is contractor work: apply for a free ABN at abr.gov.au (never pay a third-party site), track every trip and expense, and put aside roughly 15–20% of earnings for tax because nothing is withheld. Your work-hours cap (48 hours/fortnight during study periods) counts gig hours too — the apps log everything, and Home Affairs can ask.
Rideshare drivers must register for GST from the first dollar. Food-delivery-only riders generally don't need GST unless turnover passes $75,000/year. If an app or accountant tells you otherwise for your situation, check the ATO's gig economy pages directly — they're written in plain English.
One spreadsheet: date, platform, hours, gross pay, expenses (bike/scooter costs, phone, insurance). At tax time this becomes your return; if your hours are ever questioned, it's your evidence; and it shows you your real hourly rate after costs — which, for many delivery riders, is the fact that changes their mind about gig work.
You lose minimum wage, super, sick pay, and injury cover the moment you accept it. If you're already in this arrangement, you may still legally be an employee entitled to back-pay — the Fair Work Ombudsman handles sham-contracting reports and it will not affect your visa to ask for help (Home Affairs and the FWO have a formal protocol protecting visa holders who report exploitation).
As a contractor you are not covered by workers' compensation. If a car doors you on a delivery, your OSHC covers hospital treatment but not lost income. Some platforms provide limited rider insurance — read what yours actually covers before you rely on it.
Renting a delivery account (common where visa or age rules block signup) means working under someone else's identity — tax fraud territory, zero protections, and a genuine visa-cancellation risk if discovered.