Key takeaways
- The method is the same everywhere: gross taxable wages, less the threshold or deduction you are entitled to, times your jurisdiction's rate.
- 2026-27 annual thresholds run from $1,000,000 (Victoria and WA) to $2,500,000 (NT). Headline rates run from 4% on Tasmania's $1.25m to $2m slice to 8.75% at the top ACT band, and four jurisdictions taper the deduction away as wages rise.
- Two jurisdictions changed rates or thresholds on 1 July 2026: the ACT cut its threshold to $1.75m and moved to five rate bands, and the NT added a 6.5% rate at $100m of national wages. Queensland announced an extension of its apprentice rebate to 30 June 2027, subject to legislation.
- Related businesses are grouped automatically and share one threshold, so two companies that are each under the line can be over it together.
- Superannuation is liable in full, fringe benefits are liable at their FBT value, and payments to contractors are liable by default. An ABN does not exempt them.
- Payroll tax is self-assessed. Monthly returns are due on the 7th everywhere except the NT (21st), and the annual reconciliation is 21 July or 28 July depending on the jurisdiction.
Payroll tax is not PAYG withholding
Payroll tax is a state and territory tax on the wages an employer pays, calculated on the employer's total Australian wage bill once that bill passes a threshold. PAYG withholding is a federal obligation to withhold tax out of each employee's pay and send it to the ATO. Different governments, different bases, different returns.
The ACT Revenue Office puts the first half of that in one line: "Payroll tax is a State and Territory tax on wages that employers pay employees. The tax is calculated based on the amount of wages you pay employees Australia-wide per month." The State Revenue Office of Victoria says the same thing about Victorian employers whose total Australian wage bill exceeds the tax-free threshold, and Revenue NSW assesses on gross Australian wages paid or payable.
Here is the sharpest contrast between the two, and the one worth carrying away. PAYG withholding applies from the first dollar you pay the first employee: the ATO requires you to register before you are first required to make a payment subject to withholding, even if you withhold nothing from that payment. Payroll tax applies only once your total Australian wage bill crosses a threshold that sits somewhere between $1 million and $2.5 million depending on where you employ.
The reporting side splits the same way. PAYG withholding is reported to the ATO through activity statements and Single Touch Payroll, and the mechanics of the withheld amount itself are covered in the PAYG withholding guide. Payroll tax is reported to eight separate revenue offices through eight separate systems: Payroll Tax Online in NSW, PTX Express in Victoria, QRO Online in Queensland, Revenue Online in WA, RevenueSA Online, Tasmanian Revenue Online, the Self Service Portal in the ACT and INTRA in the NT.
Working out how much tax to take out of an employee's pay is PAYG withholding, not payroll tax. Use the PAYG withholding calculator for the amount, or what is PAYG for how the two sides of the federal system fit together. Nothing on this page changes what you withhold from a payslip.
How payroll tax is calculated
Take your gross taxable Australian wages for the period, subtract the threshold or deduction your jurisdiction allows, then multiply the remainder by that jurisdiction's rate. RevenueSA writes the same formula out longhand: gross taxable wages, less deduction, equals net taxable wages, multiplied by the tax rate, equals payroll tax payable. Every jurisdiction works this way.
Two things complicate it, and both catch employers out. First, the threshold is almost never the full threshold. Revenue NSW publishes the two mechanisms plainly: apportion by days employed (threshold multiplied by days employed, divided by days in the financial year), and apportion by interstate share (threshold multiplied by local wages, divided by total Australian wages). Both can apply at once. Every other jurisdiction states the same principle.
Second, in four jurisdictions the rate is set by your total Australian wages while the tax is charged on your local wages. Queensland sets 4.75% or 4.95% off Australian taxable wages, South Australia sets the rate off total Australian wages and applies the deduction against South Australian wages, the ACT band you land in is decided by wages Australia-wide, and the NT charges 6.5% once Australian wages reach $100 million. In all four the rate is not marginal: the one rate applies to all taxable local wages, not just the slice above a band. A business with a small local presence and a large interstate one can pay the top rate on a modest local wage bill.
One more structural point before the numbers. Payroll tax is self-assessed in every jurisdiction. WA states it directly: you are responsible for calculating your liability and paying the tax in the form of a return. No revenue office issues you an assessment first. That is also why the word "threshold" has to be read carefully, because it means three different things across the eight:
- A straight tax-free threshold you deduct in full, apportioned but never tapered: NSW, Tasmania and the ACT.
- A maximum deduction that tapers away as Australian wages rise: Victoria above $3 million, WA above $1 million, Queensland above $1.3 million and the NT above $2.5 million.
- A registration threshold that is a different number from the deduction: South Australia, where the threshold is $1.5 million and the maximum deduction is $600,000.
A note on the plural phrasing. Searches for how to calculate payroll taxes mostly surface American material about FICA and FUTA, which are federal United States employer taxes with no Australian equivalent. In Australia there is one payroll tax per jurisdiction, charged by that jurisdiction, and the method above is the whole of it.
Payroll tax rates and thresholds for 2026-27, by state and territory
Thresholds run from $1 million in Victoria and WA to $2.5 million in the Northern Territory. Headline rates run from 4% on Tasmania's middle slice to 8.75% at the top ACT band. NSW, Victoria and WA charge one general rate. Queensland, South Australia, the ACT and the NT pick one rate from your total Australian wages and charge it on all taxable local wages. Tasmania is the only one that charges two rates on two slices, and two jurisdictions, Victoria and Queensland, add a surcharge or levy once a national payroll passes $10 million.
| Jurisdiction | Annual threshold, 2026-27 | Rate or rates, 2026-27 | Lodgement | Source, and the year that source states |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | $1,200,000 (monthly $92,055, $98,630 or $101,918 by days in the month) | 5.45% flat on NSW wages above the threshold | Monthly by the 7th; June included in the annual return; annual return 28 July | Revenue NSW. Stated: table row reads "1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027" |
| VIC | $1,000,000 deduction (monthly $83,333). Phases out at 50c in the dollar between $3m and $5m of Australian wages, nil above $5m | 4.85%; 1.2125% for regional Victorian employers. Surcharges of 1% on Victorian wages above the adjusted $10m threshold, plus a further 1% only on Victorian wages above the adjusted $100m | Monthly by the 7th; annual reconciliation 21 July | SRO Victoria. Implied: table headed "from 1 July 2025 onward", page updated 10 July 2026 |
| QLD | $1,300,000 deduction (monthly $108,333). Reduces by $1 for every $7 of Australian wages above $1.3m, nil at $10.4m | 4.75% where Australian taxable wages are $6.5m or less, 4.95% on all taxable wages above $6.5m. Regional employers may get a 1% discount to 30 June 2030, but not above $350m of Australian wages. Mental health levy adds 0.25% above $10m, and 0.25% plus 0.5% above $100m | Monthly or half-yearly, 7 days after period end; no June periodic return; annual return 21 July | Queensland Revenue Office. Page not labelled: it says "the current threshold". The rate and deduction trace to the Payroll Tax Act 1971 reprint in force 1 July 2026 |
| WA | $1,000,000, diminishing to nil at $7,500,000. Taper is 2/13, so the deduction falls $2 for every $13 of wages above $1m | 5.5% flat. No large-payroll surcharge in the current table | Monthly by the 7th; quarterly under $150,000 estimated annual liability; annually under $20,000; annual reconciliation 21 July | RevenueWA employer guide. Not stated: current table headed "From 1 July 2023", page updated 2 June 2026. The 2026-27 Budget carried no payroll tax measure |
| SA | $1,500,000 registration threshold (monthly $125,000, weekly $28,846). Maximum deduction is a separate figure: $600,000 a year, $50,000 a month | Nil up to $1.5m; variable 0% to 4.95% where annualised Australian wages exceed $1.5m but not $1.7m; 4.95% above $1.7m. One rate, set by Australian wages, on all taxable SA wages after the deduction | Monthly by the 7th; annual reconciliation 28 July | RevenueSA. Not stated for rates: the rate row is dated "from 1 January 2019", page updated 8 July 2026. The Act, version 31.3.2026, sets the same figures |
| TAS | $1,250,000 (weekly $24,038), with a second threshold at $2,000,000 | 0% to $1,250,000; 4% from $1,250,001 to $2,000,000; 6.1% from $2,000,001. An employer not claiming a threshold pays 6.1% on all Tasmanian taxable wages | Monthly by the 7th, or annual; Annual Adjustment Return 21 July, replacing the June monthly return | SRO Tasmania. Stated: section headed "2026-27 financial year" |
| ACT | $1,750,000 (monthly $145,833.33), reduced from $2,000,000 on 1 July 2026 | One rate on all taxable ACT wages, set by total Australian wages: 6.75% where they are over $1.75m and up to $20m; 6.85% up to $50m; 7.35% up to $100m; 7.85% up to $150m; 8.75% above $150m. Eligible universities capped at 6.85% | Monthly by the 7th (December return 14 January); no separate June return; annual reconciliation 28 July; annual frequency available | ACT Revenue Office. Stated: "2026-27 Financial Year", table headed "1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027" |
| NT | $2,500,000 deduction (monthly $208,333). Reduces by $1 for every $2 of Australian wages above $2.5m, nil at $7.5m | 5.5%; 6.5% on all taxable NT wages for employers and members of payroll tax groups with Australia-wide wages of $100 million or more, new from 1 July 2026 | Monthly, payment by the 21st of the following month; annual return with the balance paid by 21 July | NT Treasury. Stated: table row reads "July 2026 to June 2027" |
Every row was fetched from the named revenue office on 30 July 2026, and every rate and threshold was checked again on 19 September 2026. Three of the eight, Queensland, WA and South Australia, do not label their current rate tables with a financial year, which is what the last column records. Queensland's and South Australia's figures also trace to their Acts as in force for 2026-27, and WA's 2026-27 Budget made no payroll tax change.
payrolltax.gov.au, the joint site of the eight revenue offices, was last updated 9 June 2026 and still shows the ACT at a $2,000,000 threshold and a flat 6.85% rate, and the NT at 5.5% with no upper rate. Both predate 1 July 2026. The ACT restructured on 1 July 2026 and the NT added its 6.5% rate on the same day. The rows above come from the ACT Revenue Office and NT Treasury directly. If a summary you are reading says otherwise, check the date on it.
How to calculate payroll tax in NSW
5.45% on NSW wages above a $1,200,000 annual threshold for 2026-27, with the threshold reduced in proportion to your NSW share of total Australian wages. Revenue NSW has published the same rate and threshold since 1 July 2022, and its 2026-27 table row reads "1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027 | $1,200,000 | 5.45%".
The arithmetic on wages paid wholly in NSW is one line. Pay $1,500,000 in NSW wages for the year, deduct the $1,200,000 threshold, and 5.45% is charged on the remaining $300,000, giving $16,350.
If you also employ interstate, the threshold shrinks first. Revenue NSW apportions it as the NSW threshold multiplied by your NSW wages, divided by your total Australian wages. If you employed for only part of the year, it apportions again by days employed over days in the financial year. Both adjustments can apply to the same employer.
Monthly returns use one of the published monthly thresholds, which vary with the length of the month: $92,055 for a 28-day month, $98,630 for 30 days and $101,918 for 31 days. The 2026-27 monthly due dates published by Revenue NSW are 7 August, 7 September, 7 October, 9 November and 7 December 2026, then 14 January, 8 February, 8 March, 7 April, 7 May and 7 June 2027, with the annual return on 28 July 2027. There is no separate June monthly return; June wages go into the annual return.
How to calculate payroll tax in Victoria
4.85% on Victorian taxable wages above a $1,000,000 annual deduction, or 1.2125% for regional Victorian employers. The catch is the deduction rather than the rate: from 1 July 2025 the deduction phases out at 50 cents in the dollar once total Australian wages pass $3 million, and disappears entirely above $5 million.
The SRO publishes the monthly deduction at $83,333. Its current rates table is headed "Payroll tax rates from 1 July 2025 onward" and the page was updated 10 July 2026, so the 2026-27 position is the same table. The SRO's own list of changes taking effect on 1 July 2026 carries one payroll tax item, the accommodation allowance exempt amount, and no rate or threshold change.
Above $10 million of Australian wages two surcharges stack on top of the general rate: the mental health and wellbeing surcharge, in place since 1 January 2022, and the COVID-19 debt temporary payroll tax surcharge, which runs until 30 June 2033. Each is 0.5% on Victorian wages above the $10 million threshold, adjusted for your Victorian share and days, so 1% combined. Above $100 million each adds a further 0.5%, but only on Victorian wages above the adjusted $100 million threshold. It is not 2% on the whole payroll. A Victorian-only employer with $12,000,000 of wages pays $20,000 in surcharges, 1% of the $2,000,000 above $10 million, on top of $582,000 of base tax. Regional employers pay the surcharges in full. The first monthly threshold for the surcharges is $833,333.
How to calculate payroll tax in Queensland
4.75% if your Australian taxable wages are $6.5 million or less, 4.95% if they are more, charged on Queensland taxable wages above an annual deduction of up to $1.3 million. Above $6.5 million the 4.95% applies to all taxable Queensland wages, not just the excess. Regional employers may be entitled to a 1% discount on the rate until 30 June 2030, except where Australian wages exceed $350 million. Above $10 million of Australian wages the mental health levy adds 0.25% on top.
The deduction tapers. QRO reduces it by $1 for every $7 of Australian taxable wages over $1.3 million, so it reaches nil at $10.4 million. A Queensland-only employer paying $3,000,000 gets a deduction of $1,057,143, not the full $1,300,000, and pays $92,286 at 4.75%.
The mental health levy is applied proportionately to Queensland taxable wages, in two steps. Nothing up to $10 million of Australian taxable wages. 0.25% above the $10 million primary threshold. Then 0.25% plus a further 0.5% above the $100 million additional threshold. The Queensland Revenue Office publishes worked examples of the levy for the 2026-27 financial year.
Queensland runs a rebate for apprentice and trainee wages rather than an exemption, and the 2026-27 Queensland Budget announced an extension to 30 June 2027. It was the only payroll tax measure in that Budget, and QRO notes that details will follow once the legislation passes and receives Royal Assent.
Periodic returns are monthly by default, with a half-yearly option, and are due 7 days after the end of the period. There is no June periodic return, and a final return is due within 21 days of a change of status. Registration is worth reading twice: QRO states that if your annual Australian taxable wages are $1.3 million or less you may still need to register, even though you may not have a liability.
One honesty note on Queensland. The QRO rates page names no financial year, saying only "the current threshold". Its metadata shows a 3 July 2026 modification while the visible footer reads 17 July 2024. The figures above line up with QRO's own 2026-27 mental health levy examples, and the rate and deduction formula trace to the Payroll Tax Act 1971 reprint in force from 1 July 2026, but the QRO page does not itself label them 2026-27.
How to calculate payroll tax in WA
5.5% on WA taxable wages, less a deductable amount that starts at $1,000,000 and shrinks as wages rise, reaching nil at $7,500,000. RevenueWA calls this the diminishing threshold and publishes the taper as 2/13: the deductable amount falls by $2 for every $13 of wages above $1 million.
The published formula is deductable amount = annual threshold minus [(wages minus annual threshold) multiplied by the tapering value], where the tapering value is $1,000,000 divided by ($7,500,000 minus $1,000,000), simplified to 2/13. RevenueWA's own worked example: annual wages of $1,200,000 give a deductable amount of $969,231 and tax of $12,692.30. Above $7.5 million the whole of your WA taxable wages is taxed at 5.5% with no deduction at all.
There is no large-payroll surcharge in WA's current table. The 6% and 6.5% tiers that circulate in older summaries appear only under "Previous rates and thresholds", for 1 July 2020 to 30 June 2023.
WA also publishes the clearest ladder of return frequencies in the country: monthly where your estimated annual liability is $150,000 or more, quarterly where it is under $150,000, and annually where it is under $20,000.
Same honesty note as Queensland. WA's current rates table is headed "From 1 July 2023", the page was updated 2 June 2026, and its worked example refers to the 2025-26 assessment year. WA does not label the figures for 2026-27, but the 2026-27 WA Budget lists four revenue measures and none is payroll tax, so they carry into 2026-27 unchanged.
Payroll tax in SA, Tasmania, the ACT and the NT
Four jurisdictions, four different shapes. South Australia separates the threshold from the deduction, Tasmania runs two bands, the ACT runs five, and the NT tapers its deduction and adds a second rate for very large national payrolls. The comparison table above carries the full figures; these are the details that decide whether you have read your own jurisdiction correctly.
South Australia
Nil up to $1.5 million of Australian wages. A variable rate between 0% and 4.95% where Australian wages exceed $1.5 million but not $1.7 million. 4.95% above $1.7 million. The registration threshold is $1,500,000 a year ($125,000 a month, $28,846 a week), and the maximum deduction is a different number again: $600,000 a year, $50,000 a month. That split is unique to SA and is the single thing readers most often get wrong.
RevenueSA does not print the formula for the variable band on its rates or calculation pages, but the Payroll Tax Act 2009 (SA) does, in Schedule 1 clause 5: the rate is (total annualised Australian wages minus $1,500,000) ÷ $200,000 × 4.95%. On $1,600,000 of South Australian wages that gives 2.475%, a $600,000 deduction and $24,750 of tax. The rate is one rate on all taxable SA wages, not a marginal band. RevenueSA Online sets the final rate, and its indicative table cuts it to two decimal places (2.47% at $1.6m), so check against RevenueSA's own rate calculator if your Australian wages land in the $1.5m to $1.7m band.
Part-year employers need one more step. Where you do not employ for the whole year, RevenueSA annualises the wages you paid to set the rate, while the deduction is apportioned by days. Its own example: $1,000,000 paid over 211 days annualises to $1,729,857, above $1.7 million, so the rate is 4.95% rather than a point in the variable band.
Tasmania
0% on wages to $1,250,000, 4% from $1,250,001 to $2,000,000, and 6.1% from $2,000,001, under a heading the State Revenue Office labels "2026-27 financial year". The liability test is total Australian wages above $1.25 million a year, or $24,038 a week during a month, measured on group wages if you are grouped. An employer that does not wish to claim a threshold amount pays 6.1% on all Tasmanian taxable wages for the month.
Australian Capital Territory
Both the threshold and the rate structure changed on 1 July 2026, so any figure you are carrying from last year is wrong. The annual threshold is now $1,750,000 ($145,833.33 a month), down from $2,000,000 ($166,666.66 a month). Before 1 July 2026 the ACT charged a 6.85% general rate plus a 0.5% or 1.0% surcharge for larger payrolls, with 8.75% above $150 million from 1 January 2026. It now charges one of five rates, picked by your total Australian wages: 6.75% up to $20m, 6.85% up to $50m, 7.35% up to $100m, 7.85% up to $150m and 8.75% above $150m.
The bands are not marginal. The ACT's own method applies the one rate to all taxable ACT wages after the threshold. An ACT-only employer paying $25,000,000 pays 6.85% on the whole $23,250,000, which is $1,592,625, not 6.75% on part of it. Eligible universities with an ACT presence are capped at 6.85%. The change was made by Taxation Administration (Amounts and Rates - Payroll Tax) Determination 2026, DI2026-151.
Northern Territory
$2,500,000 annual threshold ($208,333 a month) and a 5.5% rate, with a second rate of 6.5% from 1 July 2026 on all taxable NT wages for employers and members of payroll tax groups with Australia-wide wages of $100 million or more. NT Treasury is explicit that the amendments leave the $2.5 million tax-free threshold, the deduction settings and the general 5.5% rate unchanged for everyone else.
Those deduction settings are a taper. Once Australian wages pass $2.5 million the deduction falls by $1 for every $2 over, and it is gone at $7.5 million. An NT-only employer paying $2,900,000 gets a deduction of $2,300,000 and pays $33,000, not the $22,000 you would get by deducting the full threshold. The NT is also the one jurisdiction where the monthly payment date is the 21st rather than the 7th.
Grouping: why two small businesses can owe payroll tax that neither owes alone
Related businesses are grouped automatically and share one threshold between them. Two companies under common control, each paying $800,000 in NSW wages, are a single $1.6 million group measured against a single $1,200,000 threshold, so $400,000 becomes taxable even though neither company alone would have registered. Nobody applies to be grouped. It simply is the case.
Revenue NSW lists six ways a group forms, and grouping is one of the harmonised areas across all eight jurisdictions:
- Related corporations within the meaning of section 50 of the Corporations Act 2001
- Common employees, where an employee of one business performs duties for another
- Common control, where the same person or people control more than one business
- Tracing of interests, where an entity holds a controlling interest in another
- Phoenix operators
- Subsuming, where smaller groups are absorbed into one larger group
Only one member of a group claims the threshold, either as the Designated Group Employer or as the Group Single Lodger. Every other member is a non-threshold claiming member and pays the full rate on all of its taxable wages with no threshold at all. Which route you lodge under does not change the total group liability, only how it is split between members: Revenue NSW publishes a worked example where both routes total $13,080 on the same wages.
Two more points make grouping the highest-stakes part of payroll tax. Revenue NSW states that grouping can occur regardless of which state or industry the members employ in, so a business employing modestly in one state can be pulled over the line by a related entity employing in another. And every member of the group is liable for any unpaid payroll tax of any other group member.
A business can apply to be excluded from a group in some circumstances, with one hard limit: businesses grouped as related corporations under the Corporations Act cannot apply for exclusion. If you are not sure whether you are grouped, the ACT Revenue Office publishes a grouping eligibility check precisely because the tests are not obvious from the outside.
What counts as taxable wages
More than salary. Superannuation contributions, fringe benefits, bonuses, commissions, most allowances, directors' fees, termination payments, shares and options, and payments to some contractors all count as wages for payroll tax. Superannuation is liable in full. Fringe benefits are liable at their FBT value.
| Liable as wages | Not liable, or exempt to a limit |
|---|---|
| Salary, wages, commissions and bonuses | The GST component of a payment to a contractor |
| Superannuation contributions. Revenue NSW: all contributions are liable | The non-labour component of a contractor payment: materials, tools, equipment or a vehicle |
| Fringe benefits, declared at their FBT value | Motor vehicle allowance up to 88 cents per kilometre for 2026-27 |
| Most allowances | Accommodation allowance up to $328.85 per night for 2026-27 |
| Directors' fees | Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave, which is a government payment rather than employer wages |
| Termination payments, including accrued leave paid out and eligible termination payments | The income tax-free part of a genuine redundancy payment |
| Shares and options, and employer contributions to employee share schemes | Workers compensation payments, subject to each jurisdiction's limits |
| Payments to contractors under a relevant contract | Wages a jurisdiction specifically exempts, which is where the eight lists stop matching |
| Payments through employment agencies, payments in kind, and wages paid to sick or injured employees | Qualifying reimbursements of actual business expenses |
The two allowance figures are worth writing down because they are harmonised and both Victoria and RevenueSA publish them identically for 2026-27: 88 cents per kilometre for a motor vehicle allowance and $328.85 per night for an accommodation allowance. Victoria notes that the motor vehicle figure deliberately lags the ATO rate by a year, so payroll tax uses 88 cents while the ATO 2026-27 rate is 91 cents. Anything paid above those amounts is taxable wages.
Superannuation is the item that quietly moves employers over a threshold, because the figure being tested is the wage bill plus every contribution on top of it. If you are checking what those contributions come to across a year, the super guarantee calculator works out the employer side at the current rate. Fringe benefits are liable at their FBT value and are grossed up; the current gross-up rates sit on Revenue NSW's fringe benefits page rather than here.
Payments to contractors, and the seven exemptions
Payments to contractors are liable for payroll tax by default, not exempt by default. Revenue NSW puts it in one line: payments made by an employer to contractors are liable for payroll tax unless an exemption applies. Under a relevant contract the contractor is deemed to be the employee and the business receiving the services is deemed to be the employer.
There are three ways of engaging workers for payroll tax purposes, and which one applies decides everything after it: as employees, under employment agency contracts, or under relevant contracts. A relevant contract is a contract, agreement, arrangement or undertaking by which a contractor provides an employer with the services of a worker.
Revenue NSW names seven contractor exemptions:
- Services ancillary to the supply of goods
- Services not ordinarily required by your business
- Services required for 180 days or less in a financial year
- Services provided for 90 days or less in a financial year
- Services provided by a contractor to the public during the financial year
- Services performed by two or more people
- Services provided by an owner driver
If any one of the seven applies, all payments you make to that contractor are exempt from payroll tax. One exemption is enough, but it is assessed contractor by contractor, not across your whole contractor spend.
Where no exemption applies, only the labour component is taxable. Materials, tools, equipment and vehicles are not liable. If the invoice separates labour and non-labour and the split reflects reasonable market rates, you deduct the stated non-labour amount; if it does not, you deduct a prescribed proportion by trade under Revenue Ruling PTA 018. What you cannot deduct is general business overhead that is not specific to the contract, such as maintaining an office, general accounting expenses or insurance.
First, in its own words: "Incorrectly assuming that since the worker has an ABN or operates through a company that it automatically means they are not subject to payroll tax. The contractor provisions can apply to these types of workers." The label in the contract does not decide it either. Revenue NSW states that any label you and the worker use, such as "independent contractor", will not determine or be relevant to how the relationship is characterised.
Second, missing that the employment agency provisions apply. Where they do, the contractor provisions and the contractor exemptions do not apply at all, and the agency is liable for payroll tax on the wages it pays the on-hired workers.
One more that costs money without warning. Where a contractor fails to pay payroll tax on work done under your contract, the NSW Chief Commissioner can recover it from the principal, if the tax has not been paid within 60 days of the end of the financial year and the principal did not obtain a signed Subcontractor's Statement. Getting the statement protects you from the contractor's liability, not from your own on the payments you made.
Where you engage people on day rates or a contract rate rather than a wage, the payroll tax question comes before the pay question: work out whether the arrangement is a relevant contract first, then work out what the engagement actually costs. The worker side of the same arrangement is covered in the ABN tax rate guide and the sole trader tax calculator.
Medical practices engaging general practitioners as contractors are the most active dispute area in the country: the ACT publishes a separate page and Revenue Ruling PTA041 for designated medical practices, and RevenueSA publishes dedicated guidance for the medical industry. Revenue NSW also publishes industry-specific contractor guidance for building and construction, cleaning, direct selling, meat processing, real estate and security.
Common exemptions, and why they differ by state
Every jurisdiction exempts some wages and the lists do not match. Parental leave, genuine redundancy, workers compensation and Defence Force leave are exempt in most. Apprentices and trainees are an exemption in some jurisdictions and a rebate in others. Charities are assessed at the organisation level, not the wage level.
Apprentices are the cleanest illustration of the variation. Victoria exempts wages for a re-employed apprentice or trainee who continues the same approved training with a new employer, and does not exempt them if the same employer rehires them or if both employers are in the same group. Queensland runs a rebate, with an extension to 30 June 2027 announced in its 2026-27 Budget. NSW runs a rebate for apprentices and trainees recognised by Training NSW. The ACT exempts new starters receiving eligible training. Four jurisdictions, four different answers to the same question.
Limits matter as much as the categories. Victoria's exemption for employer-paid primary or secondary caregiver leave runs to a maximum of 14 weeks, or an equivalent period at a reduced rate of pay such as 28 weeks at half pay, and it does not cover annual, sick or recreational leave taken while absent due to pregnancy or caring for a child. Victoria also exempts WorkCover payments under an approved claim, including the first 10 days paid by the employer, but make-up pay topping a worker up to their usual wage is not exempt.
Commonwealth Paid Parental Leave sits outside the system entirely. In the SRO's framing, those payments are not wages for payroll tax purposes at all, because they are Commonwealth Government payments rather than payments by an employer to an employee.
Charities and non-profits are handled as an organisation-level exemption. Victoria publishes a list of organisations exempt from payroll tax, and Queensland handles it through charitable institution registration. Being a registered charity for ATO purposes does not automatically make an organisation exempt for payroll tax; the revenue office assesses it separately.
Because the lists genuinely differ, check the exemption you are relying on against your own revenue office before you leave wages out of a return. The Sources block below links all eight.
When payroll tax returns are due
Payroll tax is self-assessed and lodged monthly by default in every jurisdiction, due on the 7th of the following month, except in the Northern Territory where payment falls on the 21st. The annual reconciliation is due 21 July in Victoria, Queensland, WA, Tasmania and the NT, and 28 July in NSW, South Australia and the ACT.
June is usually not lodged as a separate monthly return. NSW folds June into the annual return due 28 July, Queensland does not require a June periodic return, Tasmania's Annual Adjustment Return replaces the June monthly return, and the ACT has no separate June return form. WA runs its annual reconciliation with the June return.
Less frequent cycles exist for smaller liabilities. WA publishes the clearest ladder: monthly at $150,000 or more of estimated annual liability, quarterly under $150,000, annually under $20,000. Queensland offers half-yearly periodic returns as an alternative to monthly, and Tasmania and the ACT allow an annual frequency.
Where a due date lands on a weekend or a public holiday it moves to the next business day, and the published 2026-27 tables already apply that: the October 2026 monthly return falls due 9 November 2026 in NSW, Queensland and South Australia, and the December 2026 return falls due 14 January 2027 in NSW, Queensland, South Australia and the ACT.
Registration is a separate obligation from liability, and this is where employers get caught doing nothing wrong. Revenue NSW requires registration once total Australian wages exceed the monthly threshold in any single month, and every registered business must lodge an annual return even if it is a nil return. The ACT gives you seven days: by law you must apply to register within seven days after the end of the month you go over the threshold amount. The federal equivalent obligation, registering for withholding before your first payment to an employee, is covered in registering for PAYG withholding, and the federal date ladder sits in when PAYG is due.
Getting it wrong carries a cost. RevenueSA applies penalty tax at 25% plus market rate interest and an 8% premium component on a default assessment. Revenue NSW applies interest and penalty tax to underpayments, with a reduced penalty where you make a voluntary disclosure.
What changed on 1 July 2026
Two of the eight jurisdictions changed a rate or threshold, and both changes are structural rather than a rate tweak. Content written from 2025-26 sources is wrong on both of them, which is worth knowing if you are checking these figures against an accounting firm blog post or a summary page. Queensland's only move was a rebate announcement.
- ACT. Annual threshold cut from $2,000,000 to $1,750,000 (monthly $166,666.66 to $145,833.33), and the 6.85% general rate with its 0.5% and 1.0% surcharges replaced by five rates running 6.75% to 8.75%, one of which applies to all taxable ACT wages. The 8.75% rate above $150 million had applied since 1 January 2026. Made by Determination DI2026-151.
- NT. A new 6.5% rate for employers and members of payroll tax groups with Australia-wide wages of $100 million or more. The $2.5 million threshold, the deduction settings and the general 5.5% rate are unchanged for everyone else.
- Queensland. No rate or threshold change. The 2026-27 Budget announced an extension of the apprentice and trainee rebate to 30 June 2027, subject to the legislation passing.
The confirmed negatives are just as useful. NSW is unchanged at $1,200,000 and 5.45%, the same as every year since 1 July 2022, and the 2026-27 NSW Budget carried no payroll tax measure. Victoria published one payroll tax change for 1 July 2026 and it was the accommodation allowance rate, from $323 to $328.85 per night. Tasmania's bands are unchanged from 1 July 2018. WA's 2026-27 Budget Paper No. 3 lists four revenue measures and none is payroll tax, and RevenueSA's summary of the 2026-27 South Australian Budget lists no payroll tax measure either.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between payroll tax and PAYG withholding?
How do you calculate payroll taxes in Australia?
What is the payroll tax threshold in 2026-27?
Which state has the lowest payroll tax rate?
Do I pay payroll tax if my business is under the threshold?
Is superannuation subject to payroll tax?
Are payments to contractors subject to payroll tax?
What is payroll tax grouping?
When is the payroll tax annual return due?
Does payroll tax apply to apprentices and trainees?
Sources
Every rate, threshold and due date on this page was fetched from the revenue office that publishes it on 30 July 2026, and every rate and threshold was checked again at source, including the Acts, on 19 September 2026. Nothing is taken from an aggregator. payrolltax.gov.au, the joint site of the eight offices, is cited below for the harmonisation protocol only: its rates table was last updated 9 June 2026 and is stale for the ACT and NT 2026-27 positions.
New South Wales (Revenue NSW)
Victoria (State Revenue Office)
Queensland (Queensland Revenue Office)
Western Australia (Department of Treasury and Finance)
South Australia (RevenueSA)
Tasmania (State Revenue Office)
Australian Capital Territory (ACT Revenue Office)
Northern Territory (Territory Revenue Office)
Federal (ATO), for the PAYG withholding distinction only
Joint, for the harmonisation protocol only, not for any rate or threshold
- Payroll Tax Australia: Resources (the eight harmonised areas, last updated 9 June 2026)
Related resources
Payroll Tax Calculator
Your 2026-27 payroll tax in any state or territory
Open →PAYG Withholding Calculator
The federal amount you withhold from an employee pay run
Open →PAYG Withholding
Employer obligations, registration and remitting to the ATO
Open →Single Touch Payroll
How wage and withholding data reaches the ATO each pay run
Open →