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socialmediamarketer.com.au

A guide for sole traders in social media marketing, published by Dotto

Social media marketer: your first year working for yourself

Going out alone moves you to the other side of the desk. The client’s brief is still the work, but the invoices, the tax, the name you trade under and the right to show what you made are now yours to run. This site follows that first year in the order it tends to arrive, from the rules the ATO, ASIC, IP Australia and the ACCC publish.

General information, not tax or legal advice. Each guide names the official place to check.

A printed year planner showing May, June and August, with 30 June circled in blue pen and a pen resting across the page.
A year planner with 30 June circled. Photo by webandi on Pixabay

The year you are counting

July to June: the ATO’s own worked examples count an income year from 1 July to 30 June.

Most of what follows is measured against that year. The fixed rate for working from home is set per income year, and the ATO decides on PAYG instalments from your latest tax return, so one year’s records carry into the next.

Five guides, in the order the questions arrive

  1. Before the first client

    Registering a business name

    Only needed when you trade under something other than your own first name and surname, and it gives no exclusive right to the name.

  2. The first invoice

    Tax invoices: what yours must show

    The seven details the ATO lists for a tax invoice under $1,000, and the client’s identity or ABN from $1,000 up.

  3. Every day at the desk

    Working from home expenses

    Fixed rate, actual cost or floor area, and the records each needs, including, for the fixed rate, hours written down at the time rather than estimated.

  4. Showing your work

    Client work and testimonials in a portfolio

    Who owns a piece made for a client, permission in writing, and the ACCC’s standard for the testimonial beside it.

  5. After the first tax return

    PAYG instalments in your first years

    How a return can bring both a tax bill and entry into instalments, and the voluntary way in before that.

Who keeps each rule

The ATO

Tax invoices, PAYG instalments and the deductions for running a business from home.

ASIC

The business names register: what may be registered, the fees, renewals and changes.

IP Australia

Trade marks, the only route to an exclusive right in a name, and its guidance on who owns what a contractor creates.

The Attorney-General’s Department

Its copyright pages explain how permission to use someone else’s material is given.

The ACCC

The Australian Consumer Law as it applies to testimonials and to claims about results.

Figures on this site, with their dates

  • 70cFixed rate per work hour for working from home, for the 2024–25 and 2025–26 income years, for someone who has extra running expenses from working at home and keeps a record of the hours and those expenses.
  • 5%The GDP adjustment to the ATO’s instalment amount for the 2026–27 income year.
  • $1,000From this sale amount, a tax invoice also shows the buyer’s identity or ABN.
  • 28 daysTo provide a tax invoice a customer asks for, unless the sale is $82.50 including GST or less.
  • $47 · $108ASIC’s fee to register a business name for 1 year or 3 years, as business.gov.au gives it in October 2026.

Every figure is shown with the year or date its source gives it for, and each was checked against its source on 8 October 2026.