Payroll Tax Registration & Lodgement

Payroll tax registration is triggered by crossing a threshold, not by the end of the financial year, and once registered a practice lodges a return every month. This guide covers when registration is triggered, the monthly deadlines (which are not uniform across the eight jurisdictions), the late-July annual reconciliation, and the one jurisdiction with a medical-specific reporting obligation. Each state and territory's own position is set out on its state page rather than repeated here.

Registration is triggered by the threshold, not the financial year

In every state and territory, registration is required within about 7 days of exceeding the relevant threshold, or the equivalent monthly threshold. The trigger is the crossing itself, so the date is driven by your wage run rather than by 30 June. A practice that crosses a threshold part-way through the year does not get to wait for the new financial year to register.

Each jurisdiction expresses the threshold that triggers registration slightly differently. New South Wales uses a day-weighted monthly threshold: $1,200,000 × days in the month ÷ 365, which is $101,918 in a 31-day month. The others sit close to one twelfth of the annual threshold: about $83,333 a month in Victoria and Western Australia, about $108,333 in Queensland, $125,000 in South Australia, about $104,167 in Tasmania, about $145,833 in the ACT, and about $208,333 in the Northern Territory.

Where the employer is part of a group, registration also carries the nomination of a single Designated Group Employer to claim the threshold on the group's behalf. Only one entity may claim it, and every other member of the group pays from the first dollar of wages. That nomination is a planning decision, not a formality; see the grouping and DGE guide.

The monthly return deadline

Returns are monthly in every jurisdiction, but the deadlines are not the same. Seven of the eight require the monthly return by the 7th of the following month. The Northern Territory requires it by the 21st.

Annual reconciliation

Annual reconciliation falls in late July for the year ending 30 June, and it too splits into two dates. It is due by 21 July in Queensland, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory, and by 28 July in New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia and the ACT. The table above shows which applies to each jurisdiction.

Victoria's medical-specific reporting obligation

Victoria is the only jurisdiction with a medical-specific reporting obligation at lodgement. Since 1 July 2025, a practice that claims the bulk-billed GP exemption must report the exempt portion separately as exempt GP wages at annual reconciliation. Claiming the exemption without that disclosure is not a complete claim.

The exempt figure is not fixed. It tracks the bulk-billed share of GP service income, applied proportionally to GP wages. Because a practice's bulk-billing mix moves through the year, the annual reconciliation figure is the weighted proportion across the year rather than an average of the twelve monthly percentages.

The obligation is scoped to GPs and GP registrars. Non-GP specialists, dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists and allied health practitioners fall outside the exemption, so there is nothing for them to report under it.

If you do not register

The medical relief provisions were accompanied by amnesties and audit pauses, and those windows have now closed. New South Wales ran a 12-month audit pause from 4 September 2023 to 3 September 2024, during which no interest or penalties were charged on unpaid amounts relating to contractor GP payments; that pause has ended. Queensland operated an administrative amnesty before 1 December 2024. Victoria allowed retrospective relief for periods to 30 June 2025, but only for practices the SRO had not previously advised. The ACT's amnesty ran to 30 June 2025 and required at least 65% bulk billing. South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and the Northern Territory ran no amnesty at all. The window and condition for each jurisdiction are set out in the payroll tax amnesty and audit pause guide.

Penalties are calculated on the tax that should have been paid, with interest and penalty added, and they can be assessed for years in which the practice believed it was below the threshold. With the amnesties closed, the exposure question is answered by each jurisdiction's own rules, which the state pages set out in full.

Each state and territory's position

The medical position, the framework that applies and the retrospective exposure differ by jurisdiction. 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 the 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.