GST answers
NDIS service agreements and GST
A written agreement is the third of four requirements in s38-38, and it has to do two things: identify the NDIS participant, and state that the supply is one or more of the reasonable and necessary supports specified in that participant's plan. The ATO accepts a combination of documents. Meeting it settles one test, not the treatment.
Key facts
- The provision behind the requirement
- s38-38, disability support provided to NDIS participants, in Subdivision 38-B of the GST Act3
- Where the agreement sits
- Third of four requirements, alongside a plan in effect, the support being in the plan's statement of supports, and the supply being covered by the Supports Determination1
- What the agreement has to state
- It identifies the NDIS participant, and states that the supply is a supply of one or more of the reasonable and necessary supports specified in the statement in that participant's plan1
- It does not have to be one document
- The ATO accepts a combination of documents, including letters between the parties and the receipts or invoices the practice issues, and accepts them in electronic form1
- Who the other party can be
- The participant, or a person who manages their plan and funding: the NDIA, a plan management provider registered with the NDIA, or a guardian or relative1
- The test it does not answer
- The ATO's exercise physiology example satisfies the first three requirements, written agreement included, and the supply is still taxable because the fourth is not met1
- What quantity does to it
- Where the plan specifies an amount such as time or quantity, supplies of supports in excess of that specification are not GST free NDIS supplies1
- What the templates ask a practice to check
- All three canonical templates carry a BAS agent review item headed NDIS written service agreements, on the map rather than on the invoice5
The question behind the search
Search this and most of what comes back is a template to download. The provider question is narrower and comes up at BAS time: the practice has been billing NDIS work at the GST free rate, somebody asks whether the paperwork behind that rate holds, and nobody is sure what the paperwork has to say. That is the question this page takes.
Two things go missing in the results. The agreement does not have to be one signed document. And having one settles one requirement out of four, so a practice can hold a perfect agreement and still be raising a taxable invoice.
Four requirements, and the agreement is the third
The provision is s38-38, disability support provided to NDIS participants. The ATO states the requirements as a set that has to hold together.
- The NDIS participant has an NDIS plan in effect, meaning a plan approved by the National Disability Insurance Agency.
- The supply is of reasonable and necessary supports that are specified in the statement of supports in the participant's plan.
- There is a written agreement between the practice and the NDIS participant, or another person.
- The supply is covered by one of the tables in the GST free Supply, National Disability Insurance Scheme Supports Determination 2021.
A practice reading a checklist can treat these as four boxes of equal weight. They are not. The first three are facts about the participant and the paperwork, and a practice can put all three in place. The fourth is a question about what the support is, and the paperwork does not move it.
What the agreement has to state
This is the part the results summarise as a bullet. The ATO gives it as two requirements on the document itself.
The written agreement must: identify the NDIS participant; state that the supply is a supply of one or more of the reasonable and necessary supports specified in the statement included, under subsection 33(2) of the NDIS Act, in the participant's NDIS plan.1
The second limb is the one practices miss. An agreement that names the client, sets out the sessions and states a price does the commercial job and still leaves the tax requirement short, because it does not say that what is being supplied is a support specified in that participant's plan. A guide for providers puts the same point the other way round: a missing written agreement is the mistake it sees most often.
It can be a combination of documents
The ATO's own page carries this sentence. The provider guides ranking around it summarise the requirement as a signed agreement and leave the sentence out, which matters to any practice whose arrangement lives in an email trail rather than in a countersigned PDF.
The written agreement may be a single document or a combination of documents, such as letters between you and the other party and receipts or invoices you issue. It may include documents in electronic form.1
The standard behind that is written as evidence rather than as a form: written evidence of a legally binding obligation to make the supply to the participant, and that it is a reasonable and necessary support as specified in the plan. The ATO's plan manager example then shows what a set of documents has to add up to, and its note is the useful half.
| The document | What it carries | Enough on its own |
|---|---|---|
| The plan manager's email to the provider | The participant's name, the hours needed, and that the support is one specified in her plan | No. It does not evidence a binding obligation on the provider to make the supply |
| The provider's letter to the participant and the plan manager | The details of the support and the price, with no reference to the plan | No. It does not state that the supply is a reasonable and necessary support specified in the plan |
| The plan manager's written acceptance | The participant's agreement to receive the supports from that provider | No, for the same reason as the letter above |
| The three together | A binding obligation, plus the statement that the support is one specified in the plan | Yes. The ATO treats the combination as satisfying the requirement |
Who the agreement can be with
The agreement does not have to be with the participant. The ATO says the other party can be a person who manages the plan and the funding, and names the NDIA, a plan management provider registered with the NDIA, and a guardian or relative.
That is worth separating from a different question practices fold into it. Who the agreement is with does not move the recipient of the supply. Under normal circumstances the supports are supplied to the participant rather than to the plan manager, so plan managed, agency managed and self managed work sit on the same rule. Agency managed NDIS payments and plan managed NDIS payments differ in how the money arrives, not in this test.
The agreement settles one test, not the treatment
The ATO's clearest example on the whole page is one where the agreement is in place and the supply is taxable anyway. A participant has exercise physiology in his plan, attends a clinic rather than a residential care facility, and no Medicare benefit is payable. The ATO walks the first three requirements, finds each of them met including the written agreement, and then fails the fourth.
The reason is the Determination's two tables. A supply in the first table is covered outright. A supply that only reaches the second table is covered where it is also listed in one of three other determinations: the Care Determination, the Residential Care Determination or the Health Services Determination. Exercise physiology sits under the second table's behavioural and therapeutic supports item, and the ATO's example says that item does not reach it unless it is supplied in a residential care facility. Clinic delivery does not. Non listed NDIS supports takes that argument in full, and exercise physiology takes the example itself.
A listed health service reaches GST free another way
Physiotherapy, psychology, occupational therapy, speech pathology and the rest of the listed health services have their own route under s38-10, which does not ask about an NDIS plan or an agreement at all. It asks that the service is one of the listed services, that it is performed by a recognised health professional in that listed health service or, in certain circumstances, their assistant, and that the profession generally accepts it as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient of the supply.
So a psychology session for a participant that meets those three conditions is GST free on the ordinary health service rules whether or not the s38-38 tests are met, and the ATO is strict that the service has to be one of the listed services rather than similar to one. Is NDIS income GST free sets the two routes side by side.
What the canonical templates post
The templates carry the conclusion as a posting. Agency managed NDIS revenue gets its own account in each of the three, all at the GST free income rate, and each template holds its own row for it rather than reaching a practice default.
The plan managed template says why its row reads that way: the funding source default assumes agency managed work is a listed support until a non listed support row overrides it. That is the assumption the written agreement is holding up, which is why the check belongs before the invoices rather than after them.
The check belongs on the map, not on the invoice
All three canonical templates carry a BAS agent review item headed NDIS written service agreements. The plan managed template asks the practice to confirm an agreement exists and is referenced for every NDIS client, including for listed supports. The allied health template asks for the same confirmation before the GST free NDIS defaults are relied on.
Listed supports are in that item on purpose. A listed health service does not need s38-38, so the agreement is not what makes it GST free. It is what makes the classification defensible, and it is what the practice's own funding rules are reading when they decide a line is NDIS work in the first place.
What Ledger Map does with it
Ledger Map holds one standing map for the practice, approved before anything syncs. The NDIS agreement item is part of that approval, so the question is answered once by the practice and its adviser rather than remembered per invoice. An NDIS line then resolves to its account and its tax rate through the approved map, and a line the map cannot place becomes a question with the options laid out.
The payment run is posted as one balanced document set, which leaves one exact match in the bank feed for a person to accept. The revenue leg carries the treatment this page is about. The settlement leg is a separate posting that sits outside the activity statement, because the money it holds was already earned and reported on the revenue leg. How it works shows the map and the approval step, and the other GST answers carry the same record for every funder in the mix.
Questions
What should an NDIS service agreement contain for GST purposes?
Two things, on the ATO's wording. It has to identify the NDIS participant, and it has to state that the supply is a supply of one or more of the reasonable and necessary supports specified in the statement of supports in that participant's plan. A commercial agreement that names the client, the sessions and the price does the first and often not the second, which is the gap worth closing.
Do you charge GST for NDIS services?
It depends on the support, not on the funder. A listed health service such as physiotherapy or psychology is GST free under s38-10 where it is performed by a recognised health professional in that service and generally accepted in that profession as necessary for the appropriate treatment of the recipient. Another support is GST free only where all four s38-38 requirements hold: a plan in effect, the support named in the statement of supports, a written agreement, and coverage by the Supports Determination. The ATO's own example has three of the four met and the supply still taxable.
Does the written service agreement have to be a signed document?
The ATO accepts a combination of documents, such as letters between the parties and the receipts or invoices the practice issues, and accepts them in electronic form. What it looks for is written evidence of a legally binding obligation to make the supply, together with the statement that the support is one specified in the participant's plan. Its worked example is satisfied by three documents that each fall short alone.
Can the agreement be with a plan manager rather than the participant?
Yes. The ATO says the other party can be a person who manages the plan and funding, and names the NDIA, a plan management provider registered with the NDIA, and a guardian or relative. That does not change who receives the supply: under normal circumstances the supports are supplied to the participant, so plan managed, agency managed and self managed work all sit on the same test.
What happens if a support goes beyond what the plan specifies?
The ATO addresses it directly. Where the plan specifies an amount such as time or quantity of reasonable and necessary supports, supplies of supports in excess of that specification are not GST free NDIS supplies. So the agreement can be in order and the second requirement still fails on the hours actually delivered.
Does an agreement make NDIS report writing GST free?
This page does not settle that. Two readings are live in the project's research and the ATO page read here does not choose between them. One: report writing funded inside a therapy support is arguably one of the reasonable and necessary supports, so it follows the therapy it belongs to. Two: a report written for a school, an insurer or a court is a supply to that third party and taxable. All three canonical templates post plan managed NDIS reports to their taxable reports account, and the plan managed template asks its BAS agent to confirm, per report, which of the two a report is.
Sources
Open questions
- Team DSC's page on service agreements for unregistered providers returned HTTP 403 on 3 Sep 2026. Its search snippet is the closest any indexed result comes to the practice side of this question, so it is cited as unverified and nothing above rests on it.
- The text of s38-38 was not rendered by the legislation register on 3 Sep 2026. That source carries the section's title and its place in Subdivision 38-B, which is all the key fact citing it claims; the four requirements themselves are quoted from the ATO page.
- The two tables in the Supports Determination were not read in the instrument itself. The register served the table of contents and the heading of section 6 only, so the tables are described here through the ATO page rather than quoted from the determination.
- Whether NDIS report writing funded inside a therapy support is a reasonable and necessary support in its own right is left open, as the project's research leaves it open. Both readings are live: plan funded therapy documentation follows the underlying support, and a report written for a third party is taxable. All three canonical templates post plan managed NDIS reports to their taxable reports account, and the plan managed template asks its BAS agent to confirm which of the two a report is. Agency managed reports have no row of their own and take the funding source default above.
- Therapy assistant supports under the determination's second table are recorded as a grey area in the project's own research, and the ATO's NDIS page does not settle them. This page states the requirement and links out rather than taking a position.
- Whether a particular practice's email trail meets the written agreement requirement is a question about that practice's documents. The ATO's standard and its worked example are set out above; the application belongs to the practice and its adviser.
- The Novida provider guide shows no publication or update date, so it is cited as secondary and no key fact rests on it alone.
- Every ato.gov.au page refuses an automated fetch. The two ATO pages cited here were read on 3 Sep 2026 through a signed in browser and carry their own last updated dates of June 2024.
- GST and health, National Disability Insurance Scheme
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 13 Jun 2024.
primary
- GST and health, other health services
Australian Taxation Office. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 12 Jun 2024.
primary
- A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) Act 1999, s38-38, disability support provided to NDIS participants
Federal Register of Legislation. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 1 Jan 2026.
primary
- A New Tax System (Goods and Services Tax) (GST-free Supply, National Disability Insurance Scheme Supports) Determination 2021
Federal Register of Legislation. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026. Source updated 13 Mar 2025.
primary
- Are service agreements required for unregistered providers?
Team DSC. Retrieved 3 Sep 2026.
unverified
Review
Last reviewed 3 Sep 2026 by Shane
General information for Australian allied health practices, not tax advice. Confirm a treatment with your BAS agent or accountant before you post it.
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