Queensland Payroll Tax Calculator 2026–27

Payroll tax QLD: worked examples at four payroll sizes

Queensland payroll tax combines a tapering deduction with two rates, so the quickest way to understand it is to run real numbers. Each example below is a single employer paying all its wages in Queensland for the full 2026–27 year.

How the deduction and the two rates interact

At $2,000,000, the deduction is $1,300,000 less one-seventh of the $700,000 excess, which is $1,200,000. Tax is 4.75% of the remaining $800,000, which gives $38,000.00. At $8,000,000 the employer has crossed $6.5 million, so 4.95% applies to all its taxable wages after the $342,857 deduction, not just to the part above $6.5 million.

That “whole wages” design creates a small cliff at $6.5 million: crossing it by one dollar lifts the rate on every taxable dollar by 0.20%. Growing businesses near that line should look at their estimate for the year early, because the rate in each periodic return depends on it.

QLD payroll tax mental health levy

The mental health levy is collected through the payroll tax return, but it is calculated separately and only starts at $10 million of wages. In the $12,000,000 example, $594,000.00 is ordinary payroll tax and $5,000.00 is levy on the wages above $10 million. Exempt wages, including exempt leave, are excluded from the levy as well, and the regional discount does not reduce it.

Regional discount: who qualifies in Queensland

A qualifying regional employer pays 3.75% or 3.95%. On $3,000,000 of wages that is $72,857.14 instead of $92,285.71, a saving of $19,428.57 a year.

You need both of the following, according to QRO:

• Your principal place of employment, which is your registered ABN business address, is in one of seven regions: Cairns, Central Queensland, Darling Downs–Maranoa, Mackay–Isaac–Whitsunday, Queensland–Outback, Townsville or Wide Bay. Businesses based in South East Queensland do not qualify.
• At least 85% of your Queensland taxable wages are paid to regional employees, meaning staff whose principal place of residence is in regional Queensland, judged on factors such as where they live day to day and keep their belongings, where their family lives, how long they have lived there, their electoral roll and government ID addresses and the names on utility accounts. QRO says temporary workers, working holiday makers and PALM scheme workers generally do not qualify.
• You select the regional discount in QRO Online each time you lodge, and eligibility is tested return by return. In a group, each member is tested on its own.

Registering for QLD payroll tax and lodging returns

You must register within 7 days of the end of the first month in which your Australian wages, or your group’s, exceed $25,000 a week. Registration is done in QRO Online using the Registration tile, and QRO says applications take about four weeks. You are not penalised for that processing time: you do not lodge or pay until you receive your notice of registration by email.

After registration you lodge monthly or half-yearly periodic returns, each due 7 days after the end of the period (moved to the next business day if it falls on a weekend or public holiday). There is no June periodic return. June wages, or January to June for half-yearly lodgers, go into the annual return due on 21 July. If you stop employing in Queensland or leave a group, a final return is due within 21 days of the change.

Apprentices, trainees, GPs and other exempt wages

Wages of apprentices and trainees with training contracts registered under the Further Education and Training Act 2014 are exempt, and employers get an extra rebate on top. The rebate is 50% of those exempt wages multiplied by your payroll tax rate. An employer at the 4.75% rate that pays $80,000 of apprentice wages in a period gets a $1,900.00 rebate, capped at the payroll tax payable for that return. QRO Online calculates it when you enter the apprentice and trainee wages.

Wages paid by medical practices (not hospitals) to general practitioners, whether employees or contractors, are exempt, according to QRO. So is paid parental, adoption, surrogacy or cultural parent leave up to 14 weeks (part-time staff get the equivalent at their part-time rate), along with Defence Force leave and pay for absences as a volunteer rural firefighter, SES volunteer or honorary ambulance officer. Annual, sick and long service leave remain taxable, and so does domestic and family violence leave.

Contractor payments are exempt in nine situations. These include the 90-day and 180-day rules, contractors who use two or more workers, labour that is ancillary to supplying goods, services provided to the public where the contractor earns less than 40% of their income from you, owner-drivers, door-to-door sellers and insurance agents.