I can't see CL8 being affected by this. The ATO has ruled that Uber is a taxi service. To quote a journalist from an article I read yesterday "if it looks like a taxi, and smells like a taxi, then it's a taxi".
Taxi's are a special case when it comes to GST. In general you only need to register for GST if your turnover is over $75,000. There are 2 exceptions to this:
1. If you want to claim fuel tax credits for your business.
2. If you provide taxi travel.
https://www.ato.gov.au/Business/GST/Registering-for-GST/Do-you-need-to-register-/
So the ATO hasn't determined that Uber should suddenly pay GST for the sake of collecting more revenue, rather it has determined that Uber is a Taxi service, and hence all driver need to register for GST as per the current legislation.
CL8 is not a taxi service. You are loaning your car, not driving people around.
CL8 would be closer to airbnb and so I think the ruling for them would probably be applicable to drivemycar etc. If this is the case I think this could even be beneficial to drivemycar.
The ruling for Airbnb was that owners do not have to register for GST. However, I think an important part of the ruling on them was that owners would have to declare the income they receive in their tax returns and pay capital gains on their properties. I can't find a specific article on this (although am certain I read it yesterday) but it would be in line with the guide from the ATO on renting out your property.
https://www.ato.gov.au/General/Property/Your-home/Renting-out-part-or-all-of-your-home/
Which makes me wonder how this may affect CL8. Property is (generally) an appreciating asset. You're almost certain to have a rise in house value upon selling, so by using Airbnb you will likely have a CGT event at the end of the day. Cars on the other hand are depreciating assets. So I would think worst case scenario would be that income received would have to be declared, but I think a good case could be made to be able to claim a capital loss on the car upon selling.
Possibly an idea may be to obtain an ABN (although this step may not be necessary?), buy a <$20k car (or if you have the money buy a few), put it/them on drivemycar, then write off the $20k as a deduction under the new rules that the gov't just announced in the budget for the next 2 years.
I'm not an accountant / tax expert - just putting my thoughts out there :).
