Whatnot fees and GST for Australian sellers

Two things make Australia its own case rather than a US schedule with a currency swapped: Whatnot charges GST on its own fees to sellers who are not GST-registered, and Australian commission runs on its own tiered curve, not the US one. Neither is a small-print detail; both change what a show actually nets.

Everything below matches Whatnot's published fee schedule as of 17 September 2026, with the Australia rate card read directly on 27 September 2026, and Whatnot's own tax and GST guidance for Australian sellers. Rates and promotions change, so check Seller Hub before pricing a show around any single number here.

Tiered, not flat, since 21 September 2026. Sports and Trading Card Games start at 8.00% and fall as low as 6.00% once your sales in a rolling four-week period reach A$130,000; the other categories run their own curves, with Coins and Money the lowest at 3.50%. Two time-boxed promotions run alongside the tiers and are not part of the standing rate.

Your total sales across all categories in a rolling four-week period set your tier, and your tier sets the commission rate each category then pays. There is nothing to apply for: cross a threshold and the next four-week period opens at the lower rate.

Sports and Trading Card Games sit on their own curve, steeper than the US and Canada's: Australia's reaches 6.00% where the US and Canada stop at 6.50%. Payment processing sits outside every tier: 2.9% plus $0.30 of everything the buyer paid, whatever your commission tier, with the fuller mechanics of that split in Whatnot fees explained, and how a tier is earned and locked for a full four-week period in does Whatnot lower fees for bigger sellers.

Two time-boxed promotions sit alongside the standing tiers rather than inside them. Coins and Money orders carry 0% commission through 30 September 2026, on top of whatever tier a seller has reached. A Trading Card Games 0% commission promotion ran 6 to 20 September 2026 and has already ended; it is recorded here as evidence Whatnot runs local, time-boxed promotions in this market, not as a rate to plan a break around.

Only if you are not registered for GST. Whatnot collects GST on its own Commission, Payment Processing, Show Promotion and Boost fees from Australian sellers who are not GST-registered, at the standard 10% rate. Register for GST and Whatnot stops charging you GST on its fees entirely; you then handle your own GST obligations directly with the ATO.

This is GST on what Whatnot keeps, not GST you charge a buyer on the sale itself; those are two separate questions, and the second is yours to register for and remit, the subject of Whatnot's own tax guide for Australian sellers rather than this page.

Say a card sells for $100 at the Standard tier, standard commission and processing, no shipping or buyer tax. Commission is 8% of $100, $8.00. Payment processing is 2.9% of the total order value plus $0.30, $3.20. If you are not GST-registered, Whatnot adds 10% GST on each of those two fees, $0.80 on the commission and $0.32 on processing, $1.12 in total, taking the payout from $88.80 to $87.68. Register for GST and both of those lines disappear from Whatnot's side; you then account for your own GST obligations directly with the ATO instead.

Whatnot states it as a binary rather than a discount: a GST-registered seller is not charged GST on its fees at all, and a non-registered seller is charged the standard rate on Commission, Payment Processing, Show Promotion and Boost fees alike. There is no partial or reduced rate either way.

Yes. The Tax pack's period picker defaults to the Australian financial year (1 July to 30 June, labelled FY 2025-26 and so on), alongside the calendar year and the UK tax year as presets, with a custom range for anyone whose accountant wants something else.

Two Australian facts change what records you keep, and neither comes from Whatnot: they are how the ATO runs GST and income tax for every business, Whatnot sales included. Once your GST turnover, Whatnot sales plus anything else you sell, passes A$75,000.00 in any rolling 12-month period, you are required to register for GST, whether or not you have done so yet. And Australia's tax year runs 1 July to 30 June, not the calendar year most of this site's worked examples default to.

BreakCount's Tax pack already builds around that second fact rather than assuming January: its period picker defaults to the Australian financial year, labelled FY 2025-26 and so on, sitting beside the calendar year and the UK tax year as presets, with a custom range for anyone whose accountant wants something else. A seller does not have to remember to ask for July; it is already the starting point.

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