Victoria Payroll Tax Calculator

Worked examples (FY 2026/2027)

These results are computed live by the calculation engine at page render — they cannot drift from the calculator above.

Registration & lodgement

Victoria payroll tax threshold history

Since FY 2021/2022, the annual payroll tax threshold in Victoria has risen 53.8%. In FY 2026/2027 it is $1,000,000. The table below shows the threshold and headline rate for every financial year currently tracked in the engine. These values are drawn directly from the statutory registry, so if a legislative amendment is recorded there it will automatically appear here.

Rates and thresholds should be confirmed against the official Payroll Tax Act 2007 (Vic)and the relevant state revenue office website before lodgement.

Victoria's threshold phases out, and that surprises people

Victoria's rate is 4.85% in metropolitan areas, or 1.2125% for regional employers with at least 85% of taxable wages paid to regional employees. The headline threshold is $1,000,000, but unlike NSW it is not a fixed deduction. It phases out linearly between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000 of Australian group wages: deduction = $1,000,000 × ($5,000,000 − Australian wages) ÷ $2,000,000, clamped to the range $0 to $1,000,000.

The phase-out reduces the deduction by $0.50 for every $1 of Australian wages above $3,000,000 and reaches zero at $5,000,000 — not at $3,500,000, which is a figure that circulates and is wrong. A group with $4,000,000 of national wages receives a $500,000 deduction. The same group in NSW, on the same wages, would receive a full $1.2M apportioned.

Two surcharges stack, and they trigger on national wages

Victoria layers two surcharges on top of the base rate. The Mental Health and Wellbeing Surcharge has applied since 1 January 2022, and the COVID-19 Debt Temporary Surcharge since 1 July 2023 — the latter is legislated to run through 30 June 2033 and has not sunsetted. Both are assessed on Australian-wide group wages, not Victorian wages.

Together they add 1% once national wages exceed $10,000,000, and 2% once they exceed $100,000,000, applied to the Victorian share of wages. A group with $50,000,000 of national wages and $8,000,000 of Victorian wages therefore pays roughly $64,000 in combined surcharge, even though its Victorian wages alone sit well below the $10,000,000 trigger. Any Victorian practice inside a larger national group should model the surcharge on the group's total, not on the Victorian operation.

Victoria's GP exemption is proportional, and it must be disclosed

From 1 July 2025 Victoria exempts wages paid to contractor and employee GPs to the extent they are attributable to bulk-billed consultations. The method is proportional: if 60% of GP service income is bulk-billed, 60% of GP wages are exempt and 40% remain taxable. Retrospective relief for periods up to 30 June 2025 exists, but only for practices the SRO had not already advised — it is a conditional flag, not an automatic reduction.

Victoria also attaches a disclosure obligation the other states do not. The exempt portion must be reported separately as exempt GP wages at annual reconciliation. Claiming the exemption without that disclosure is not a complete claim, and the SRO holds the practice's bulk-billing data to check it against. Non-GP specialists, dentists, physiotherapists, psychologists and allied health fall outside the exemption entirely.

Victoria's registration and lodgement cycle

Victoria requires employers to register within 21 days of the end of the month in which the wage threshold is exceeded, and to lodge a return for each period thereafter. A medical practice that registers late still owes the tax from the point the threshold was passed, and the SRO can assess earlier periods on its own initiative rather than waiting for a voluntary disclosure.

Two mechanics matter for medical practices specifically. The exemption is applied within the return rather than by not lodging — an exempt practice still files. And at annual reconciliation the exempt GP wage figure must be reported separately, reconciled against the actual weighted proportion of bulk-billed GP income rather than a simple average of monthly percentages, because a practice's bulk-billing mix can move through the year.