Personal Services Income Tool
Check whether income is PSI and which rules apply. Enter contract and client facts to see the tests met, missing evidence and your next decision.
Individual and income year
Use an anonymous reference for the individual earning this income.
Salary, wages, officeholder and religious-practitioner payments.
Assess each individual separately, including work through an entity.
Contracts and result terms
Contract 1
Income for this contract in the selected year. Exclude GST.
Check goods, income-producing assets and the business structure.
Read payment terms, with the industry’s custom and practice.
Choose Yes if none is needed. Apply the industry’s custom and practice.
Record liability even if a defect has not occurred.
Use document references and facts. Keep names and identifiers out.
Contract 2
Income for this contract in the selected year. Exclude GST.
Check goods, income-producing assets and the business structure.
Read payment terms, with the industry’s custom and practice.
Choose Yes if none is needed. Apply the industry’s custom and practice.
Record liability even if a defect has not occurred.
Use document references and facts. Keep names and identifiers out.
Contract
Income for this contract in the selected year. Exclude GST.
Check goods, income-producing assets and the business structure.
Read payment terms, with the industry’s custom and practice.
Choose Yes if none is needed. Apply the industry’s custom and practice.
Record liability even if a defect has not occurred.
Use document references and facts. Keep names and identifiers out.
Annual business evidence
Principal work by market value. Apply the worker exclusions below.
Confirm the individual, income, period and conditions in the notice.
Include commission agents and government-agency payer grouping.
Agency registration alone does not meet this condition.
Use a qualifying apprenticeship, including eligible training arrangements.
Maintain and use qualifying premises throughout the operating period.
Check the actual area used, including any shared areas.
Include private premises of the individual, entity and associates.
Include the client’s associates. Apply every premises condition together.
The ATO decides a determination application under the statutory criteria.
Evidence record
Record source references and unresolved questions without identity details.
PSI rules do not apply
The results test supports a personal services business for this individual’s entered annual PSI.
$120,000
Decision branch
Results test
Enter evidence for one individual and the whole income year. Entries stay on your device.
Conditions and unresolved facts
| Condition | Status | Evidence needed |
|---|---|---|
| Contract 1: classification | Met | PSI: the whole contract amount counts. |
| Contract 1: paid result | Met | Payment must depend on producing the contracted result. |
| Contract 1: equipment | Met | Supply the equipment or tools required for this work, considering industry practice. |
| Contract 1: defects | Met | Bear the cost of rectifying defective work, considering industry practice. |
| Contract 2: classification | Met | PSI: the whole contract amount counts. |
| Contract 2: paid result | Unmet | Payment must depend on producing the contracted result. |
| Contract 2: equipment | Met | Supply the equipment or tools required for this work, considering industry practice. |
| Contract 2: defects | Met | Bear the cost of rectifying defective work, considering industry practice. |
| Results test | Met | At least 75% of annual PSI must satisfy all three results conditions. |
| Unrelated clients test | Unavailable | Self-assessment unavailable under the 80% rule. Entered condition: Unmet. Two or more unrelated clients obtained directly through public offers or invitations. |
| Employment test | Unavailable | Self-assessment unavailable under the 80% rule. Entered condition: Unmet. Eligible others do at least 20% of principal work by market value, or an apprentice works at least half the income year. |
| Business premises test | Unavailable | Self-assessment unavailable under the 80% rule. Entered condition: Unmet. Maintain qualifying premises throughout the period the business operates in the income year. |
| 80% rule | Unmet | Alternative tests require less than 80% of PSI from one payer and its associates. |
| Excluded payments removed | Met | Separate salary, wages and statutory excluded payments. |
| All annual contracts included | Met | Complete the contract inventory for this individual and income year. |
| Existing ATO determination | Unmet | Confirm the determination’s scope, conditions and period. |
| Special payer rules | Met | Resolve commission-agent and government-agency payer grouping where applicable. |
| Unusual circumstances | Unmet | Assess the statutory determination pathway if unusual circumstances are present. |
Separate PSI From the Rules
The personal services income tool classifies each contract, then checks whether a personal services business (PSB) exception applies to the individual’s annual PSI. Income can remain PSI even when its special tax rules do not apply.
Enter each contract’s income and the share earned from the individual’s personal effort or skills. Check the allocation against the goods supplied, income-producing assets and business structure. Select “Not sure” while a factual or legal judgement remains open.
When personal effort accounts for more than 50%, the whole contract amount counts as PSI. At 50% or less, none of that contract income counts. The ATO’s contract-classification guidance explains this distinction. Enter income excluding GST and keep salary and wages separate.
Use one anonymous individual reference and one income year per assessment. Include all relevant contracts for that individual, including income earned through a company, partnership or trust. Another individual needs a separate assessment.
Read the Test Results
The confirmed results share is the proportion of annual PSI from contracts with evidence of all three results conditions. Each qualifying contract must pay for a result, require the necessary equipment and impose liability for defective work. Consider the industry’s custom and practice when assessing those terms.
The ATO results test requires at least 75% of PSI to meet all three conditions. The test remains available when one payer supplies 80% or more. A current ATO determination is a separate exception when its coverage and conditions match the income.
When the results test does not pass, the largest payer share controls access to the alternative tests. Combine each payer with its associates. The 80% rule requires less than 80% from any one source before you self-assess against an alternative test.
- The unrelated clients test requires two or more unrelated clients whose work directly results from public offers or invitations. Agency registration alone does not establish that condition.
- The employment test requires eligible others to perform at least 20% of principal work by market value, or a qualifying apprentice for at least half the income year.
- The premises test requires premises used mainly for PSI work, exclusively occupied and physically separate from relevant private and client premises. Maintain them throughout the business’s operating period.
For the work percentage, exclude administration, bookkeeping and other support work. Exclude work by the assessed individual, other individuals whose own PSI the entity receives and associated non-individual entities. The ATO employment-test guidance explains the exclusions and the market-value calculation.
Special commission-agent rules and government-agency grouping can change the payer assessment. Select the special-rules review option when those facts need assessment. Payments to officeholders or religious practitioners also need separate treatment. The checker keeps these branches unresolved.
The conditions table distinguishes met, unmet and unresolved facts. An unresolved fact prevents a definite answer when it could change the decision. An independently complete exception can still support a PSB outcome. The statutory personal services business tests contain the operative conditions and determination rules.
Follow a Worked Assessment
The fictional example covers one individual with two contracts in the 2025-26 income year. Each contract has a confirmed personal effort share of 90%. The $90,000 contract meets every results condition. The $30,000 contract pays for time and fails the paid-result condition.
The tool classifies the full $120,000 as PSI. Qualifying results income is $90,000, which is exactly 75% of annual PSI. It returns “PSI rules do not apply” through the results test, even though the largest payer share is 100%.
Change the $90,000 contract’s defect-liability answer to “Not sure”. Its results conditions become unresolved, so the tool returns “Resolve test evidence”. Confirming that liability changes the outcome back. Answering “No” instead leaves no qualifying results income. With the remaining example facts unchanged, the PSI rules apply.
Save the Decision Record
Download the assessment to save a local text record of the entered facts, contract classifications and decision branch. The record includes the condition table, evidence notes and unresolved questions. Open the text file locally to print it.
The tool keeps entries in the page and sends no input to a provider. Use anonymous references and document descriptions instead of names or identity numbers. Reset example restores the fictional facts. Leaving the page clears your entered assessment.
This local assessment does not lodge a return, submit results to the ATO or create a binding personal services business determination. Where self-assessment is unavailable, assess the statutory determination pathway and its unusual-circumstances criteria. A PSB outcome does not settle employment status or general anti-avoidance questions.
For attribution, deductions and return reporting, use the personal services income guide with the saved assessment.