Work out what payroll tax you owe this month in every Australian state and territory. Enter the wages you paid in each state and the calculator applies the current rates, thresholds, regional discounts and levies for NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS, NT and the ACT.
Payroll tax is a state tax, not a federal one. Every state and territory sets its own threshold and its own rate, so an employer paying staff in three states has three separate calculations to do. This calculator does all of them at once for a single month and shows you the working, not just the answer.
These are the standard rates and thresholds this calculator is currently using. The monthly threshold column shows how the annual threshold is prorated for a 30 day month, which is how each state works out your monthly liability.
| State | Annual threshold | Monthly threshold | Rate | Revenue office |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW New South Wales | $1,200,000 | $98,630 | 5.45% | NSW revenue office |
| VIC Victoria Regional rate available | $1,000,000 | $83,333 | 4.85% | VIC revenue office |
| QLD Queensland Regional rate available | $1,300,000 | $108,333 | 4.75% to 4.95% | QLD revenue office |
| SA South Australia | $600,000 | $50,000 | 4.95% | SA revenue office |
| WA Western Australia | $1,000,000 | $83,333 | 5.5% | WA revenue office |
| TAS Tasmania | $1,250,000 | $102,740 | 4% to 6.1% | TAS revenue office |
| NT Northern Territory | $2,500,000 | $208,333 | 5.5% to 6.5% | NT revenue office |
| ACT Australian Capital Territory | $1,750,000 | $145,833 | 6.75% to 8.75% | ACT revenue office |
Payroll tax is a state and territory tax on the wages you pay as an employer. It is often confused with PAYG withholding, but they are completely different. PAYG withholding is a federal tax you take out of an employee pay and send to the ATO on their behalf. Payroll tax is a cost to your business, paid to a state revenue office, calculated on the total wages bill you generate in that state.
You only pay it once your wages rise above a threshold, which is why small employers never encounter it and growing employers often get caught by surprise. The moment your Australian wages cross a state threshold, you are obliged to register in that state, lodge monthly and pay.
The step most employers get wrong is the shared threshold. Each state measures your total Australian wages, not just the wages you paid in that state, and then hands you a proportional slice of its threshold based on where those wages were paid. An employer with $200,000 of monthly wages split evenly across four states does not get four full thresholds, it gets a quarter of each state threshold.
On top of that, most states taper the threshold away as wages grow, and remove it altogether once wages pass an upper limit. Several states also stack levies on top of the headline rate once you get large enough, such as the Victorian and Queensland mental health levies and the ACT surcharge arrangements. The calculator above shows each of these on its own line so you can see where the number came from.
Taxable wages are broader than base salary. Generally they include ordinary wages, overtime, penalty rates, allowances, bonuses and commissions, directors fees, superannuation contributions, the grossed up value of fringe benefits, shares and options, and the taxable portion of termination payments. Contractor payments can also be caught by the relevant contract provisions in each state.
The following are exempt in every Australian state and territory, and should be excluded before you enter your totals above:
Other exemptions, rebates and concessions such as apprentice and trainee rebates, charitable exemptions and regional concessions differ from state to state. Check with the revenue office in each state you pay wages in.
If your business is related to other businesses through common ownership, common employees, shared control or a tracing interest, the revenue office will treat you as a single group for payroll tax. The group shares one threshold between every member, and one member is nominated to claim it. Grouping is one of the most common reasons an assessment comes back higher than expected. This calculator treats you as a single ungrouped employer, so if you are grouped, your real liability will usually be higher than the figure shown.
Most employers lodge and pay monthly, generally within seven days after the end of the month, followed by an annual reconciliation after 30 June. Payroll tax follows the month wages are paid, not the month they were worked, which is why this calculator asks you to choose a month. A pay run that covers hours worked in one month but is paid in the next belongs to the month it was paid.
Typing wage totals into a calculator each month is fine for a one off estimate, but it is a poor way to run a payroll. Microkeeper is Australian payroll software that reads the wages straight out of your processed pay runs, splits them by the state each employee works in, applies your exempt payment lines and produces a payroll tax report for every state you operate in. Rosters, timesheets, awards, payroll, STP and payroll tax all in one system.