Payroll tax amnesties and audit pauses

When the states and territories introduced medical payroll tax relief between 2023 and 2025, several accompanied it with an amnesty or an audit pause: a limited window in which a practice that had not been paying payroll tax on contractor GP amounts could correct its position without interest and penalties, or with the past period treated more leniently. Every one of those windows has now closed. This page records what each jurisdiction offered, to whom, and its current status, so a practice that is under assessment, or weighing a voluntary disclosure, can see where it stands. Each jurisdiction's substantive position is set out on its own page, linked below, rather than repeated here.

What an amnesty or audit pause is

An amnesty or an audit pause is a time-limited concession, not a change to the law. It does not change who owes payroll tax; it changes what the revenue office will charge for a past period in which the tax went unpaid. The concessions took different forms. New South Wales ran a 12-month audit pause, during which no interest or penalties were charged on unpaid amounts relating to contractor GP payments. Queensland operated an administrative amnesty before 1 December 2024 for eligible practices that had not previously been assessed. Victoria offered retrospective relief for periods to 30 June 2025, but only for practices the State Revenue Office had not previously advised. The ACT's amnesty, which ran to 30 June 2025, was conditional on the practice bulk-billing at least 65% of patients.

A practice cares about these windows because of what they sat next to. Engaging doctors as contractors is the standard model in Australian general practice, and it is the arrangement that creates the largest payroll tax exposure a practice has: the revenue offices treat the amount the practice collects and remits to a contractor doctor as deemed wages. Where that liability was never paid, the amnesty or audit pause was the difference between a manageable correction and the tax plus interest and penalties. Because the windows were also the point at which the revenue offices were inviting practices to come forward, they shaped when many practices regularised their position.

The position by jurisdiction

Four jurisdictions ran a window, and four never did. The table sets out each window, the condition attached to it, and its status now.

Every window has closed

All four windows have closed, and none has been replaced. There is no jurisdiction in which a practice can still apply for the New South Wales audit pause, the Queensland amnesty, the Victorian retrospective relief or the ACT amnesty. The two most recent, Victoria's and the ACT's, both closed on 30 June 2025. The New South Wales audit pause ended on 3 September 2024, and the Queensland amnesty closed on 1 December 2024, the day the GP exemption commenced.

South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory never ran an amnesty at all. In South Australia the exemption commenced on 1 July 2024 with no retrospective relief window. In Tasmania and the Northern Territory there is no medical-specific exemption, and the relevant contract provisions apply in full. In Western Australia the relevant contract framework does not apply to medical practices, so there was no deemed-wages position for an amnesty to regularise.

Where a window was conditional, a practice already under assessment was not covered by it. The Queensland amnesty was for practices not previously assessed, the Victorian relief was only for practices the State Revenue Office had not advised, and the ACT relief did not reach practices already under assessment. A window that has closed cannot be reopened by an approach now.

What to do now if the window has closed

If a practice finds it has not been paying payroll tax on contractor GP amounts, and the relevant window has closed, the position is now the ordinary one. The site does not advise whether to make a voluntary disclosure, and the standing note below applies: obtain a specialist opinion before any voluntary disclosure. The medical practice payroll tax area is contested, with live retrospective assessments, so the question is best put to a registered tax agent or specialist adviser who can see the practice's own figures.

Three existing pages carry the material that question turns on. The contractor doctors and payroll tax guide explains how the liability arises, what the deemed wage is, and why an ABN does not change the answer. The registration and lodgement guide sets out when registration is triggered and what follows if a practice does not register. And each state and territory's own page, linked below, sets out that jurisdiction's framework, relief and retrospective exposure in full.

Each jurisdiction's position

The amnesty question is answered by each jurisdiction's own rules. Rather than restate them here, each is set out on its own page:

• New South Wales medical practice payroll tax
• Victoria medical practice payroll tax
• Queensland medical practice payroll tax
• Western Australia medical practice payroll tax
• South Australia medical practice payroll tax
• Tasmania medical practice payroll tax
• Australian Capital Territory medical practice payroll tax
• Northern Territory medical practice payroll tax

Where to go next

Model your own numbers with the multi-state payroll tax calculator, check current thresholds and rates in the rate table, or work through the medical practice worksheet if your exposure turns on contractor practitioners rather than staff wages.