Employment growth rebate for payroll tax

A payroll tax rebate of up to $20,000 is available to eligible employers who can demonstrate over a full financial year that they have employed more than their level of full-time employees.

The rebate is:

• available from 1 July 2019 to 30 June 2021
• claimed per employer, per year
• calculated as part of the annual return.

A pending administrative arrangement will have details on eligibility conditions and how the rebate is calculated.

What you need to do

If you want to claim the rebate in the 2019-20 annual return, you need to keep the following records:

• A baseline total of all Queensland full-time positions as at 1 July 2019. These positions
  • are filled by an employee, other than a person deemed to be an employee under the Payroll Tax Act 1971 (i.e. contractor or worker providing services under an employment-agent arrangement), who is either paid Queensland taxable wages or wages that are partially or fully exempt from payroll tax under the Act
  • have responsibilities that require, on average, at least 35 hours of work per week for the employer.
• Monthly employee counts on the last day of each month in the 2019-20 financial year. A monthly employee count is the total, as at the last day of each month, of all persons who are paid Queensland taxable wages in the month. It must
  • include all employees and persons deemed to be employees under the Act
  • exclude all employees, and persons deemed to be employees, whose wages are wholly exempt from payroll tax in Queensland.

Also consider...

• Read about apprentice and trainee wages for payroll tax.
• Understand payroll tax rates and thresholds.
• Understand which payments are included as taxable wages.
• Know when to report a change in business conditions.
• Read about record keeping for tax purposes.