Yes. If you get paid to film a commercial (or anything else) in your house, the location fee is generally assessable income and you must declare it in your tax return, even if it is a one-off payment. The ATO treats money received for renting out all or part of your home as taxable income, regardless of whether you are running a business. The good news: you can claim deductions for costs directly related to the hire, and a single short shoot is treated very differently from running your home as a permanent filming location.
Productions pay real money for the right house, so it is worth understanding the tax position before you sign the location agreement, not after.
Why a Location Fee Is Taxable Income
A location fee is a payment for the use of your property. The ATO’s guidance on renting out all or part of your home is clear: rent money you receive is assessable income, and you declare the gross amount before any fees or commissions are taken out. That includes payments labelled as cleaning fees, disturbance fees or inconvenience payments from the production.
It does not matter that:
- it only happened once
- you never advertised your home and the location scout approached you
- you are not registered for an ABN and have no business
- the payment came through a location agency rather than directly from the production company
But isn’t a one-off payment a hobby?
This is where people get caught. The hobby-versus-business distinction applies to activities, like making craft on weekends or posting videos for fun. It does not apply to payments for the use of your property. Letting someone use your house for a fee is income from property, in the same category as rent, and assessable even as a single, isolated receipt.
What the one-off versus repeated distinction does change is everything around the income: whether you are carrying on an enterprise for GST and ABN purposes, how the CGT main residence exemption is affected, and how you apportion deductions. More on each below.
How to Declare a Location Fee
For a private homeowner, a location fee is generally declared as rental income in your individual tax return for the year you receive it. If the house is jointly owned, the income (and the deductions) are split according to legal ownership, which usually means a couple who own 50/50 each declare half.
The fee is added to your other income and taxed at your marginal rate. There is no special flat rate for location income, and there is no minimum threshold below which it becomes tax-free.
What You Can Claim Against a Location Fee
You can deduct expenses incurred in earning the location fee, as long as they are not private, domestic or capital in nature. Expenses that relate solely to the hire are fully deductible. Expenses that serve both the shoot and your normal life must be apportioned, typically based on the period the property was used for filming.
| Expense | Deductible? | How to claim |
|---|---|---|
| Professional cleaning before and after the shoot | Yes | Fully deductible where the cleaning relates solely to the hire |
| Repairs for damage caused by the production | Yes | Deductible where the damage arose from the income-producing use (keep photos and the production’s acknowledgment) |
| Location agency or listing fees and commissions | Yes | Fully deductible, since they relate solely to earning the fee |
| Electricity, gas and water during the shoot | Partly | Apportioned for the shoot period, and only the extra usage attributable to filming |
| Insurance top-up or short-term cover for the shoot | Yes | Deductible where taken out specifically for the hire |
| Renovating your kitchen because it looked dated on camera | No | Private or capital in nature, not deductible against the fee |
| Accommodation while the crew has your house | Generally no | Usually private in nature; get advice before claiming, and note any amount the production reimburses is itself income |
Note the distinction between repairs and improvements. Fixing a wall the grip truck scraped is a repair. Replacing the whole fence with a better one is an improvement, which is capital and not immediately deductible.
If you earn income from your home regularly, whether as a filming location or through your own creative work, the deduction rules get more involved. Our creative freelancer tax guide covers home-based income and apportionment in more detail.
Been offered a location fee and not sure what to declare? Book a free consultation before you sign, and we can tell you exactly where you stand.
CGT and the Main Residence Exemption: The Part to Take Seriously
Your home is normally exempt from capital gains tax under the main residence exemption. One of the conditions for the full exemption is that the home has not been used to produce income. The ATO’s guidance on using your home for rental or business says that if you rent out part or all of your home, you may only be entitled to a partial exemption, worked out using the floor area used to produce income and the period it was used that way.
A one-off shoot is not the same as ongoing commercial use
The partial-exemption rules are built around sustained income-producing use: a tenant in a granny flat, a home office for your business, a room permanently listed on a short-stay platform. A two-day commercial shoot sits at the other end of the spectrum. Where the whole house is used for a very short period and then reverts entirely to your private home, any effect on the exemption would be correspondingly small, and the practical outcome depends on your specific facts.
We are deliberately not telling you “a one-off shoot has no CGT consequences”, because the law does not contain a clean carve-out that says so. What can be said is:
- A short, isolated hire is a very different fact pattern from running your home as a location business, and the time-and-floor-area apportionment reflects that.
- If your home becomes a regularly hired location, you should assume the main residence exemption is affected and plan for it.
- There is a compulsory market value rule: if a home you acquired after 20 September 1985 is first used to produce income after 20 August 1996 and you would only get a partial exemption, you are taken to have acquired it at its market value when the income use started. You do not get a choice, so a market valuation at that point matters.
If a location agency wants to list your house, or a production is talking about repeat bookings, get specific advice before the first shoot. An hour with an advisor is trivial against an avoidable CGT exposure on a Sydney or Melbourne house.
GST: Almost Never an Issue for a Private Homeowner
GST only applies if you are registered, or required to be registered, for GST, and registration is only required if you are carrying on an enterprise with GST turnover of $75,000 or more. A private homeowner letting their house for an occasional shoot is generally not carrying on an enterprise at all, so for most people the answer is: no GST on the location fee, and no need to register.
Two practical points:
- The production may ask for an ABN. Businesses are normally required to withhold 47% from payments to suppliers who don’t quote an ABN. If you are not carrying on an enterprise, you do not need an ABN; instead, you can complete the ATO’s Statement by a supplier form declaring the payment is private or domestic in nature, and the production pays you in full.
- If location hire becomes a real sideline, with an agency listing, regular bookings and turnover heading toward $75,000, the enterprise and GST registration questions become live. The treatment of location hire is not identical to ordinary residential rent, so get advice before you cross that line rather than after.
Insurance and Your Location Agreement
The tax is usually the easy part. The agreement is where homeowners get hurt. Before the trucks arrive, make sure the location agreement covers:
- The production’s public liability insurance, with a certificate of currency naming a realistic cover amount, and confirmation you are covered for crew injuries on your property
- Damage: who assesses it, who pays, and by when. A pre-shoot condition report with photos, signed by both sides, is standard practice
- Exactly what is being hired: which rooms, the garden, driveway and street parking, power usage, and access hours
- The fee, gross of everything, plus overtime rates if the shoot runs long (they often do) and cancellation terms
- Make-good obligations: returning furniture, repainting walls they painted, restoring anything moved
Also call your own home and contents insurer. Some policies exclude commercial use of the property, and a quick disclosure call protects you if something unrelated goes wrong during the hire.
Record-Keeping
Keep, for at least five years: the location agreement, remittance advice or proof of payment, invoices for cleaning, repairs and agency fees, utility bills covering the shoot period with your apportionment workings, and the condition report and photos. If the income use could affect your main residence exemption, CGT records need to be kept for five years after you eventually sell the property, so file everything somewhere permanent.
Production companies account for location fees in their own budgets and QAPE calculations, so a proper paper trail helps both sides. (That side of the ledger is our day job: see how we work with film and TV productions.)
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to pay tax if a production films a commercial in my house?
Yes. A location fee is assessable income and must be declared in your tax return for the year you receive it, even for a single one-off shoot. It is taxed at your marginal rate along with your other income.
Is there a minimum amount before I need to declare a location fee?
No. There is no tax-free threshold specific to location fees. Whether the production pays you $500 or $15,000, the gross amount is assessable income. Deductions for cleaning, repairs and agency fees reduce the taxable amount.
Will renting my house for filming affect my main residence CGT exemption?
It can. The full main residence exemption requires that your home has not been used to produce income, and ongoing or regular location hire can reduce the exemption based on the floor area and time used to earn income. A short one-off shoot is a much smaller exposure than running your home as a regular location, but there is no automatic carve-out, so get advice before committing to repeat bookings.
Do I need an ABN or to charge GST on a location fee?
Usually not. A private homeowner hiring out their house occasionally is generally not carrying on an enterprise, so GST registration is not required and no GST applies to the fee. If the production asks for an ABN, you can complete the ATO’s Statement by a supplier form instead, which stops them withholding 47% from your payment.
Can I claim the cost of repairing damage the film crew caused?
Yes, repairs for damage arising from the shoot are generally deductible against the location fee, as are cleaning costs and agency commissions. Keep before-and-after photos and invoices. Improvements that go beyond restoring the property to its prior condition are capital and not immediately deductible.
What if the production pays for my hotel while they have the house?
If the production reimburses or pays your accommodation, that benefit generally forms part of what you are receiving for the hire, and your own accommodation costs are usually private in nature rather than deductible. This area is fact-specific, so include the arrangement in the location agreement and get advice if the amounts are significant.
Talk to a creative industry tax advisor before the shoot. Count Out Loud works with productions and the people they pay, so you get the position from both sides of the location agreement, in plain English, before anything is signed.