An Australian influencer who is in business includes the market value of products, trips, services and crypto received for promotion in assessable income, just as if the brand had paid cash, and the ATO says it will usually accept the cash price you would normally charge a stranger as that value. Tips from fans count too, even when a platform calls them gifts. Creators who are not in business still declare one-off paid promotions; only a genuine hobby falls outside. The real work is valuing each item, logging it on the day it arrives and keeping the evidence, which is what the log and decision table below are for.
What the ATO says about benefits instead of money
The ATO's page on what to include in assessable income calls these barter transactions and says that goods, services, tips, gratuities or other benefits received as full or part payment for what you provide are included at their market value. Its list of examples could have come from a PR wardrobe: clothing, jewellery and accessories, crypto assets and NFTs, flights and accommodation, gaming products, make-up and skin care. In its worked example, a parenting reviewer who promotes a brand's car seat and receives the seat, retailing at $150, and a pram, retailing at $2,000, includes $2,150 of income.
The ATO's content creator guide, published on 29 September 2026, goes further with a lifestyle influencer flown to a resort with no cash payment: flights valued at $8,000 and accommodation and other benefits valued at $5,000 would generally mean $13,000 of assessable income. The guide's summary is blunt: where a creator is in business, gifted products, services and experiences received in exchange for promotion generally have tax consequences even when no cash changes hands.
The same guide marks the boundary. A hobbyist may occasionally receive a small prize, gift or other benefit connected with the hobby without the activity becoming commercial, and amounts from a genuine hobby are generally not assessable. A creator who is not in business but accepts a paid feature still generally declares the payment.
Four ways to put a value on what you received
The ATO's examples use different yardsticks depending on the deal. Record which one you used for every item, because the method is what an adviser or the ATO will test.
- Your usual price for the work. The default on the ATO's assessable income page is the cash price you would normally charge a stranger for the services. A current rate card is your best evidence; our UGC pricing worksheet helps you build one.
- The retail price of the goods. The car seat example values each item at its retail cost, so screenshot the brand's listed price on the day the parcel arrives.
- Market value less what you paid. For a discounted deal, the ATO's special rule for barter with extra payment includes the market value minus your contribution; in its example a cot retailing at $3,100, bought at cost for $1,000 in return for a review, produces $2,100 of business income.
- The money value of crypto when you derive it. The ATO's page on crypto assets used in business values tokens received for services at their market value from a reputable exchange at the time the income is derived.
Your rate for a set of posts and the retail value of the product you were sent will often differ. The ATO page says it will accept the stranger price in most cases, which is not the same as saying which figure fits every deal, so ask your agent which to use when the two are far apart and note the reason in your log.
Decision table: is it income, and for whom?
| Situation | In business | Earning, not a business | Genuine hobby | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Products sent in exchange for agreed posts | Income at market value | Generally assessable, like a one-off paid feature | Generally not, if truly incidental | ATO creator guide |
| Flights, rooms and meals for a campaign | Non-cash business income | Generally assessable | Unlikely to arise | ATO creator guide |
| A product bought at a discount in return for a review | Market value less the price you paid | Same calculation where assessable | Unlikely to arise | ATO assessable income |
| Tips from fans, including ones a platform labels gifts | Income as tips and gratuities | Generally assessable | Rare once a page is monetised | ATO assessable income |
| Tokens paid for promoting a crypto launch | Market value on receipt is income and becomes the cost base | Same, as a reward for services | Not applicable | ATO airdrops page |
| Coins earned in a game played for fun | Not applicable | Not applicable | Not income, and related costs are not deductible | ATO airdrops page |
| An unsolicited package with nothing agreed | Not directly addressed on these ATO pages | Not directly addressed | Not directly addressed | Ask your agent |
| A sample you must send back after reviewing it | Not directly addressed; log the return | Not directly addressed | Not directly addressed | Ask your agent |
The last two rows are deliberately left open. Some guides give confident answers on unsolicited parcels and loan samples, but the ATO pages cited here describe benefits received as payment for what you provide and do not deal with those cases directly. Record the facts, including any later post you made about the item, and let your agent decide.
Fan gifts, mixed deals and items you resell
Fans are the source creators most often treat as different from brands, and the ATO does not. Its guidance on online income includes an example of a creator who livestreams across several platforms while viewers pay her directly in appreciation of the content, and it says those payments must go in her return. The same page lists tips and gratuities among business income and warns that they may be described as gifts.
Physical presents bought from a fan wishlist are not given a separate rule on the pages cited here. Rather than assume the word gift makes them tax-free, log them at market value with the date and sender handle, and ask your agent how they should be treated alongside the platform tips that sit on the same statement.
Mixed deals need both halves recorded. The ATO's wording covers goods and benefits received as full or part payment, so where a brand pays a fee and also sends product, the fee and the product's market value both belong in income; the market-value-less-contribution rule only applies when you hand over money as part of the deal. If you later sell items received for promotion, keep the sale record with the original log entry so your agent can see the whole history of the item in one place.
Non-cash income log
Set up one spreadsheet row per item and fill it in on the day the item arrives or the trip begins, while the brief and the retail page are still easy to find.
| Column | What to record | Example entry |
|---|---|---|
| Date received | Delivery date, or the first day of a hosted trip | Day the courier delivered |
| Item or benefit | A description specific enough to price later | Launch skincare set, full-size bottles |
| From | Brand, agency, fan or platform | Brand via its PR agency |
| What you agreed to do | The deliverables, or a note that nothing was agreed | Story frames and a feed post with a tag |
| Market value and method | The Australian dollar value and which of the four methods produced it | Retail price on the brand site, screenshot saved |
| Business or private use | How the item was used after the campaign | Used on camera, then in the bathroom cupboard |
| Kept, returned or given away | What happened to it, with the date | Kept |
| Evidence | Brief, emails, price screenshot and the post link | Brief PDF, email thread, post URL |
The log also feeds the non-cash line of the GST turnover worksheet in our GST guide for creators, and the evidence column is what you hand over if the ATO asks how a value was reached.
GST on non-cash deals
The ATO's page on bartering and trade exchanges says business barter receives the same income tax and GST treatment as a cash or credit sale, that barter values count when you test the GST registration threshold, with $60,000 of cash sales plus $20,000 of barter meeting it in the ATO's example, and that a tax invoice and ABN obligations apply to barter just as to any other business transaction. A creator close to the threshold who ignores product deals can therefore register late without realising it.
Crypto rewards and airdrops
The ATO treats crypto received as a reward or payment for services, including airdrops, as ordinary income of the business at its money value when derived, and its crypto business page reminds holders that a data-matching program compares tax returns with data from designated service providers. Its page on staking rewards and airdrops uses an influencer as its example: 100,000 tokens received for promoting a new platform, worth $0.001 each on arrival, mean $100 of assessable income and a cost base of $0.001 per token for any later capital gains calculation.
The same page says coins earned through a hobby or entertainment, such as a game played for fun, are not included in income, and costs tied to that hobby are not deductible. The ATO's airdrop guidance also points to a draft ruling, TR 2026/D1, so the detail may still move; check the final position before relying on an unusual case.
Limitations of this guide
This is general information from ATO pages checked on 1 October 2026, written for Australian residents trading as sole traders. It does not cover disclosure, which is a separate obligation: tagging a deal with a platform tool, such as the Instagram paid partnership label, does nothing for your tax position, and declaring the income does nothing for your disclosure duties. How an item you declared as income is treated if you then use it in the business is a question for your agent; ordinary deductions are covered in our creator deduction worksheet, and the wider picture in the Australian creator tax overview. You can confirm an agent is registered on the Tax Practitioners Board register.