High Court rules rideshare driver fares are wages under NSW law, leaving Uber with a massive bill and contractor models under scrutiny

Uber must pay about $81 million in New South Wales payroll tax after the High Court of Australia ruled that fares passed on to its drivers count as wages, a decision with direct implications for any business that relies on independent contractors.

A majority of the court dismissed Uber’s appeal in full today (4 November), upholding payroll tax assessments issued by the NSW Chief Commissioner of State Revenue for the 2015 to 2020 financial years. Uber has also been ordered to pay the Chief Commissioner’s legal costs.

Payroll tax is a state-based tax levied on the wages businesses pay above a set threshold. The central question in the case was whether money Uber passed to drivers after deducting its service fee fell within that definition.

Uber argued it was simply a payment collection agent, taking fares from riders and handing them on to drivers, and should sit outside NSW payroll tax rules.

That argument succeeded at first instance in the NSW Supreme Court in September 2024. The NSW Court of Appeal unanimously overturned that ruling on 1 August 2025, and the High Court granted Uber special leave to appeal on 4 December 2025.

The High Court majority has now found that drivers worked under contracts captured by the Payroll Tax Act 2007 (NSW), meaning the fares they received are treated as wages for payroll tax purposes.

What does the ruling...

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