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Every jurisdiction is unlocked. Move wages between states, add a business to the group, or price it without the contractor payments. Run it as often as you like. Nothing is deducted and nothing expires.
Own two businesses? The law may give you only one tax-free threshold.
If the same people run two businesses, or one bookkeeper does the books for both, the law treats them as one employer. One tax-free threshold between them, not one each. It happens automatically. Nobody writes to tell you.
A payroll tax specialist will check this for you, for $3,000 to $10,000 or more. We check all eight states in about three minutes, split the threshold the way the law does, and price every way of dealing with it.
A rough guide: two businesses, one state, three years back. The full calculator covers all eight states and prices every option.
Sound familiar?
Payroll tax is eight separate state taxes that act like one. The rule that joins your businesses is not on any form you have filled in, and no letter arrives to say it has happened.
That letter is often the first you hear of it, and by then the problem is years old. Revenue offices match payroll data with company and trust records, and with each other. Grouping is what those checks look for.
Grouping, tracing of interests, relevant contracts, apportioned thresholds, annual reconciliation. Each one is a real rule with real dollars behind it, written in words nobody outside a revenue office uses.
Both can be right. There are eight different laws, with different thresholds, rates, phase-outs, surcharges and contractor rules. Western Australia does not have the contractor rules at all. An answer that is right in Perth can be wrong in Brisbane.
Usually five years. It can go further where a business never lodged a return, the facts were not fully disclosed, or there was fraud or evasion. Penalty tax and interest are charged on each of those years separately, from the day that year's tax was due.
You type in the wages. We apply all eight states' rules at once, split every threshold the way the law does, add the surcharges, then price every lawful way to deal with the gap and put them in order. No appointment, no jargon, and nobody rings you.
About three minutes, and you will see how much threshold your group has lost and what the gap could cost. It costs nothing.
A worked example: what guessing costs
Both families run a shop in Sydney and a trade business in Brisbane, on the same wages. One worked out what grouping meant early. The other found out five years later.
Both families are invented and neither is a customer. What is real is everything else: the thresholds, the rates, the apportionment, the penalty rates and the interest rate are all published by the eight revenue offices, and every figure above was produced by the same engine that runs the calculator. The Nguyens' figure assumes the usual five-year limit. Their Brisbane business never lodged a return, so a revenue office could go back further, and then carrying on would cost them more. See all thirteen worked examples.
Your options
| Guess Hope it is fine |
A payroll tax specialist Accountant or state tax adviser |
Payroll Tax Grouping This calculator |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs you | Nothing today, maybe a big bill later |
$3,000 to $10,000 or more | $19 |
| How long it takes | An afternoon of worry | Weeks of meetings and document requests | About 3 minutes |
| Splits your threshold across states | |||
| Prices every option side by side | Each one billed as extra work | ||
| Adds up penalty tax and interest | |||
| Run it again whenever wages change | Billed again | ||
| Advice personal to your situation |
Key payroll tax dates
We did not set any of them. Payroll tax runs on a financial year and a look-back window, and each date moves your position whether you act or not.
Rates, thresholds, phase-outs and surcharge lines are set for each financial year, and every state changes on the same day. A sum done on last year's rates is not a little out in one state. It is out in all eight. These figures are the - schedules, and New South Wales alone is - at -. Every rate and threshold, state by state.
Every registered employer squares up the year, and the return asks straight out about group members and interstate wages. This is when the threshold split is checked, and when a group nobody mentioned comes to light. Thresholds run from - to -, and the surcharges start at - of group wages. What the reconciliation asks for.
The usual limit under the state tax laws. It can go further where a business never lodged a return, the facts were not fully disclosed, or there was fraud or evasion. Interest runs at - a year on each of those years separately, and the highest rate any jurisdiction charges is -. Penalties, interest and what disclosing early saves.
What you get
The free estimate tells you how big the problem is. The report works it out state by state, shows the threshold split line by line, and puts every lawful way to deal with it in order, cheapest first. All on your own wage figures, with every sum shown so you or your accountant can check it.
See a full sample report, free. It is an invented group run all the way through, with the open half exactly as a customer sees it. You can ask the assistant two questions about it.
How it works
If you can read a payroll summary, you can use this. Simple mode asks only what decides most of the answer. Advanced mode adds the contractor exemptions, the penalty basis and the regional rates.
What connects the businesses, how many there are, the wages in each state and territory, what you pay contractors, and what has already been declared. We never ask for an ABN, a bank detail, a client number or any employee's name.
How much threshold the group has lost, how many states it owes tax in, which surcharges have switched on, and the yearly shortfall. Every option named and explained, with the first half of the steps.
$19 opens the full report: every state to the dollar, one to five years back, every option ranked on total cost, and the whole position priced at every published penalty rate. PDF included, ready to send to your accountant.
Revenue NSW, the State Revenue Office Victoria, the Queensland Revenue Office, RevenueWA, RevenueSA, the State Revenue Office Tasmania, the Territory Revenue Office and the ACT Revenue Office. Every rate, threshold, phase-out and surcharge is theirs.
Nothing is a black box. Every figure in the report carries the arithmetic that produced it, including what each threshold was before it was split and what it became after.
We are not licensed to tell you what to do, and we cannot rule on whether your businesses are grouped. Each revenue office decides that on your own arrangements. What was missing was the arithmetic.
If the calculator cannot properly model your situation, or something goes wrong, tell us within 14 days and we will refund you. No forms, no argument.
Included with the report
Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report: your wage figures, your states and territories, and your options. Ask it anything about it and it answers in plain English. It is not a search box or a help page. It knows what your report says because it has been given it.
An example of the kind of answer it gives, on the sample report's figures.
Pricing
One payment. No expiry, nothing to renew, and we never keep your card. It opens the whole report, and you can redo the sums as often as you like, for as long as you like.
Prices in Australian dollars. Paid securely through PayPal: card or PayPal balance, no account needed. See a sample report before you decide.
Payroll tax grouping FAQ
Payroll tax grouping is when the law treats two or more businesses as one employer, so they share one tax-free threshold instead of getting one each. It happens if the same people control them, if staff work across both, or if one holds an interest in the other through a trust or company. No notice is sent, and it applies whether or not anyone has registered.
It depends on where your wages are paid, not just how much you pay in total. Thresholds run from $1,000,000 in Victoria and Western Australia to $2,500,000 in the Northern Territory, and ordinary rates run from 4.00% to 8.75%. Each threshold is then cut in proportion to the share of your Australian wages paid in that state. This calculator works out all eight at once on the 2026-27 rates.
Each state cuts its threshold in proportion to the share of your total Australian wages paid there. The formula is that state's threshold multiplied by wages paid there, divided by total Australian wages. So a group paying $1,750,000 in New South Wales out of $3,350,000 across Australia does not get the full $1,200,000 threshold. It gets $626,866, and pays 5.45% on everything above that.
Yes. If an employee of one business does any work at all for another business, or there is an agreement for them to, the two businesses are grouped. There is no minimum number of hours or days. A bookkeeper who does both sets of books, or an office manager who answers both phones, is enough. A business can apply to be excluded from a group formed this way.
Every member of the group is liable for the whole group's payroll tax. One member, called the designated group employer, claims the threshold for all of them, and the others pay tax on all their wages with no threshold of their own. The members are jointly and severally liable, so a revenue office can chase any member for the full amount, even tax from a business that has since closed.
The usual limit is five years. It can go further where a business never lodged a return, where the facts were not fully disclosed, or where there has been fraud or evasion. On top of the unpaid tax, penalty tax runs from 5% if you disclose before any investigation, to 25% for not taking reasonable care, and 75% for intentional disregard. Interest is charged at 12.43% a year on each of those years separately.
A voluntary disclosure means telling a revenue office about unpaid payroll tax before it starts looking, and it cuts penalty tax by 80%. That brings the penalty down to 5% instead of 25%, and the premium part of the interest is commonly remitted as well. The tax itself does not change. Each state needs its own disclosure, so telling one revenue office does nothing in another.
Yes, in some cases, by applying for an exclusion order in each state where the group is registered. It is only available for groups formed by common control, shared employees or tracing of interests, not for related companies. The decision turns on how independently the businesses really run. An order in one state has no effect in another, and it does not undo the years already behind you.
Often, yes. In seven of the eight states and territories, a payment under a relevant contract (a contract for someone to provide services) counts as wages unless one of eight exemptions applies, such as 90 days of work or fewer in the financial year, or a contractor who hires other people to do the work. Having an ABN makes no difference. Western Australia never adopted these rules and uses the ordinary employee test instead.
Yes. Every employer superannuation contribution counts as wages for payroll tax, including the compulsory guarantee, salary sacrificed amounts and anything paid above the minimum. On an ordinary payroll that is more than a tenth of the total. Leaving it out is the most common mistake when a business first works out where it stands, and it can be enough to push a group over a threshold.
No. This is an information service: it applies the eight published payroll tax schedules to the wage figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks options on one stated arithmetic measure and does not recommend one. Whether your businesses are in fact grouped is a question of law about your own arrangements, and only a revenue office or a registered tax agent can settle it.
A grouping shortfall does not sit still. Each year adds more tax. Interest keeps building on every year before it. And the penalty for a problem found on audit is five times the penalty for one you disclose first. We did not make that up. It is how the state tax laws work, and it is why three minutes now is the cheapest part of the whole process.
No card. No sign up. Your answer on the next screen.
No one will tell you that you are grouped. You will still be taxed as if you always knew.
Each revenue office has a calculator for its own state. None of them knows about the other seven. So none of them can show you what grouping really changes: eight thresholds become one, split between the states by where the wages were paid.
Rates and thresholds as at -.
Your estimate
Worked out on your own figures: carrying on as you are, against the cheapest way of dealing with the shortfall.
Any email you like can be your login, or use your PayPal one.
And you can ask it questions. Your report comes with an assistant that has read it and explains any figure in plain English, if you want it. It is given the amounts on your report, never your name or your email, and the conversation stays in your browser.
A link back to this estimate with your wage figures still in it. Open it on a laptop, or forward it to your accountant, without typing it all again.
Your estimate now, then three short follow-ups over the next week, and we stop. Unsubscribe in one click. We never sell your address.
Before a revenue office works it out for you
A shortfall nobody has noticed keeps growing. Penalty tax and interest are charged on every year of it. The full report prices what your group owes in all eight states and territories, splits each threshold the way the law does, and ranks every lawful way of dealing with the gap, cheapest first.
Yes, it is included, and using it is entirely your choice. It sits behind one button on your report and does nothing until you press it. Nothing in the report is held back from somebody who never opens it.
When you do ask it something, what it receives is the figures on your report: amounts and categories. Not your name, not your email address, not your account, and never an ABN, a client number or a bank detail, because we do not hold those in the first place. The name you can put on the report cover is optional and is not part of what it is given. The conversation stays in your browser tab and is gone when you close it, and we record that a question was asked without recording what it said.
Section 5 of the privacy policy sets out exactly what does and does not travel, including who processes it.
A payroll tax specialist's review of a group across several states typically costs $3,000 to $10,000 or more, and each new "what if" is more billable time. This report does the same arithmetic in all eight states for $19, and you can run it again whenever your wages change. What a specialist can do that this cannot is give advice personal to you and deal with the revenue office on your behalf. Many people use both: this first, so the meeting is shorter.
No. You pay once and the access is yours for good. There is no subscription and nothing renews. PayPal handles the payment, so we never even see your card number.
No, and nothing can except a revenue office. Grouping is a question of law about your own arrangements, decided separately by each of the eight offices, and they can disagree with each other. What the report does is price the position if you are: in every state, one to five years back, at every published penalty rate. That is the number nobody has ever put in front of you.
Payroll Tax Grouping provides information, not financial product advice. We are not licensed to give personal financial advice and we never tell you which option to pick. What we do is apply the published rules to the figures you enter and show you what they produce, with every working visible. Your actual liability is assessed by each state and territory revenue office under its own Act, and whether your businesses are grouped is decided by those offices on your own arrangements, not by any calculator. Confirm your position with the revenue office in each state and consider advice from a registered tax agent before acting.
Pay once and your full report opens on this screen: all eight states and territories, every option ranked, and nothing to renew.
Any email you like can be your login, or use your PayPal one.
Payroll tax grouping examples
A café and a plumbing business under one family. A medical centre with fifteen doctors. A franchise group with six stores and one director. The businesses are examples. The figures are not typed in: every one is worked out live, on the current rates of all eight revenue offices, by the same engine that runs the calculator.
Two businesses under the same control are one employer for payroll tax. Between them they get a single tax-free threshold. It happens automatically, by law: nothing is issued to say it has, and it applies from the day the connection existed rather than the day somebody notices.
Every jurisdiction reduces its threshold in proportion to the wages paid outside it. Pay two thirds of your wages in New South Wales and a third in Queensland, and you get two thirds of the New South Wales threshold and a third of the Queensland one. Not both in full.
Five years is the ordinary reassessment limit. Penalty tax and interest are charged on each of those years from the day that year's tax fell due, so the oldest year has been running the longest and five years of interest is fifteen years' worth between them.
Everything below is those three facts in real dollars, for thirteen different businesses. Worked out on the current schedules. Carrying on means two more years build up before a revenue office finds it, and it goes back the usual five years. It can go back further where a business never lodged a return or the facts were not fully disclosed, and then carrying on costs more. A contractor exemption or a regional rate is never counted as the cheapest option, because nobody can tell from the wages whether a business qualifies.
Your own figure turns on four things none of these businesses can tell you: which states the wages are actually paid in, how many businesses belong in the group, what has already been declared, and how long it has been running. Change any one of them and the answer moves in every jurisdiction at once.
Prepared for Kowalski Family Group
Here is every way of dealing with the shortfall, and what each one costs in total, on your wages and the 2026-27 rates. They are in order, cheapest first. Open Show Details on any of them to see what it means and what is involved. Those panels are live on this page.
$705,100carry on as you are
$403,448apply to be excluded from the group, then disclose what is left
Same wages, same states, same rates. The unpaid tax for the years behind you is much the same on most options. What changes is the penalty, the interest, and how many more years of shortfall build up. All 6 options below are lawful.
Doing nothing has a price too. Carrying on as you are comes to $705,100. It assumes two more years of shortfall build up before a revenue office finds it, with the audit penalty of 25% instead of the 5% for telling it first. It also assumes the office goes back the usual five years from the day it finds it, so the oldest year drops out of reach and five years are charged. An office can go back further where a business never lodged a return, the facts were not fully disclosed, or there was fraud or evasion. If it does, carrying on costs more than this.
Not in this list. One more option depends on a fact this report cannot check: whether the group qualifies for a regional rate. It is priced in the "Every option compared" section, as if the group qualifies, but it is not ranked and never counted as the cheapest.
$3,350,000 of wages in 3 states and territories, taxed as one group.
Apply to be excluded from the group, then disclose what is left. That is $301,652 less than carrying on as you are. Section 01 explains what it involves. This is not a recommendation. It is simply the option that costs the least on these figures.
Where the threshold went. As one group, the businesses get $1,074,179 of tax-free threshold between them. Taxed separately, they would get about $3,576,716. The difference, $2,502,537, is what grouping takes away. Each state also cuts its threshold by the share of wages paid in other states. On $3,350,000 spread across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, the full thresholds in those states come to $3,032,143, and the group can use $1,074,179 of it.
How the declared figure is worked out. We do not know which states the $1,750,000 of declared wages were paid in, so they are spread across New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland in the same proportions as the group’s wages. That is an assumption, and it can push the shortfall either way. If the declared wages were all paid in one state, the business that declared them kept that state’s whole threshold, and the shortfall would be between $80,056 and $92,002 a year, depending on the state, against the $86,894 shown here.
The full working, one row per state. The two threshold columns matter most: the full threshold at your wage level, and the part the group actually gets once wages paid in other states are counted.
| Where | Wages | Share | Full threshold | Threshold you get | Rate | Surcharge | Tax a year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NSW Revenue NSW |
$1,750,000 | 52.2% | $1,200,000 | $626,866 | 5.45% | - | $61,211 |
| VIC State Revenue Office Victoria |
$620,000 | 18.5% | $825,000 | $152,687 | 4.85% | - | $22,665 |
| QLD Queensland Revenue Office |
$980,000 | 29.3% | $1,007,143 | $294,627 | 4.75% | - | $32,555 |
New South Wales. It is then multiplied by 52.2%, the share of the group's Australian wages paid here, which leaves $626,866.
Victoria. The threshold is phased out in a straight line between $3,000,000 and $5,000,000 of Australian wages. It is then multiplied by 18.5%, which leaves $152,687.
Queensland. The threshold is reduced by $1 for every $7 of Australian wages above $1,300,000. The rate is set by the group's Australian wages, not by QLD's. It is then multiplied by 29.3%, which leaves $294,627.
The state with the most wages is often not the state with the most tax, because each state has its own rate and its own threshold.
The same wages, worked out twice: once with the businesses sharing one threshold as a group, and once as if each were taxed on its own. Nothing else changes.
That is the extra tax that grouping adds over five years, before any penalty or interest. It is different from your shortfall, which compares what the group owes with what has been declared. This one compares the group with the same businesses taxed separately.
How the separate figure is worked out. We do not know how the wages are split between the businesses, so this splits them evenly between the 3 businesses you told us about, with the same mix of states. If one business is much bigger than the other, the real figure will differ, but grouping still costs more.
What grouping does not change. The rates, the surcharges and the rules about what counts as wages stay the same. Grouping changes one thing: how many tax-free thresholds the businesses get.
Each option is measured the same way: the unpaid tax for the years behind, the penalty, the interest and the extra tax over the next two years. The top row costs the least.
In order of total cost, over the 4 years behind and the next two. Not a recommendation.
| # | Option | Back tax | Penalty | Interest | Next two years | All in | More than the cheapest |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Apply to be excluded from the group, then disclose what is left | $347,575 | 5% | $38,494 | $0 | $403,448 | - |
| 2 | Separate the businesses, then disclose the years behind | $347,575 | 5% | $38,494 | $86,894 | $490,342 | +$86,894 |
| 3 | Disclose to every revenue office before anyone asks | $347,575 | 5% | $38,494 | $173,788 | $577,236 | +$173,788 |
| 4 | Disclose, and pay it by arrangement | $347,575 | 5% | $73,251 | $173,788 | $611,993 | +$208,545 |
| 5 | Carry on as you are | $434,469 | 25% | $162,014 | $0 | $705,100 | +$301,652 |
| 6 | Wait, and be assessed this year | $347,575 | 25% | $108,009 | $173,788 | $716,266 | +$312,818 |
Claim the regional rates, if the group qualifies, then disclose. Only if the business is registered in a regional area and pays at least 85% of its wages to regional staff. If it does, this comes to $464,314 all in, measured the same way as the table above. That is $60,866 more than the cheapest ranked option. If it does not, this option is not open to the group. Victoria charges a regional employer a quarter of its normal rate.
The revenue office chooses the penalty rate based on how the shortfall happened. It runs from 5% to 90% on the same tax, so every published rate is priced here.
| Basis | Penalty rate | Penalty tax | All in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Disclosed before any investigation The base 25% for failing to take reasonable care, reduced by 80%. |
5% | $17,379 | $472,963 |
| Disclosed after an investigation started The base 25%, reduced by 20% only. |
20% | $69,515 | $525,099 |
| Found on audit - failure to take reasonable care The ordinary base rate where a taxpayer has not disclosed. |
25% | $86,894 | $542,478 |
| Found on audit - intentional disregard Clear evidence of intentional disregard of the law. |
75% | $260,681 | $716,266 |
| Intentional disregard, plus concealment The 75% base increased by 20 percentage points. |
90% | $312,818 | $768,402 |
All of it is penalty tax. The tax and the interest do not change. Penalty tax is cut by 80% if you tell the revenue office before it starts an investigation, which makes it the biggest number in this report that you can control.
Everything above is real arithmetic on a fictional group. Run yours and this half opens on your own wage figures.
And you can ask it questions. Every report comes with an assistant that has read your report and explains any figure in it in plain English. Using it is entirely your choice, it does nothing until you press the button, and it is given the amounts on your report and never your name, your email or your account.
This report is general information. It applies the payroll tax rates, thresholds and grouping rules published by the eight Australian revenue offices for 2026-27 to the wages entered, and shows what they produce. It is not tax advice, not a recommendation, and not a ruling on whether any businesses are grouped. Payroll Tax Grouping is not a registered tax agent, does not know your full circumstances, and does not tell you which option to choose. Options are ranked on one measure only: total cost over the years behind you and the next two.
What that measure leaves out. Professional fees and how long each option takes. Whether a revenue office would agree the businesses are grouped, or would grant an exclusion. Whether a contractor exemption applies. Whether the wage figures include everything that counts as wages. And what any option would do to the businesses themselves.
Three assumptions. The same wages in every year. Every business employed for the whole year (a business that started or stopped part way through gets a smaller threshold, which this report does not model). And the wages already declared are spread across the states in the same proportions as the group’s wages, because we do not know where they were paid. That is not a cautious assumption. A business that declared all its wages in one state kept that state’s whole threshold, and it can have paid more or less than this assumes, so the shortfall shown can be too high or too low. Section 02 shows the range.
The five-year limit. Carrying on is priced on the usual limit: a revenue office goes back five years from the day it finds the shortfall. It can go further where a business never lodged a return, the facts were not fully disclosed, or there was fraud or evasion, and then carrying on costs more than shown.
Each revenue office decides separately. These are eight taxes, not one. An exclusion in one state has no effect in another, and two offices can reach different conclusions about the same businesses. Check your position with the revenue office in each state, and consider advice from a registered tax agent or a lawyer, before you act.
Prepared using the 2026-27 rates and thresholds of Revenue NSW, the State Revenue Office Victoria, the Queensland Revenue Office, RevenueWA, RevenueSA, the State Revenue Office Tasmania, the Territory Revenue Office and the ACT Revenue Office, with interest at 12.43% a year (4.43% market plus a fixed 8% premium) and penalty tax under the harmonised Taxation Administration Acts. The figures on this page belong to a fictional group and are shown to demonstrate the format.
That is somebody else's answer. Yours takes about three minutes and costs nothing.
The link may have been used already. If you still get emails, contact us and we will stop them.
Payroll tax guides
Written for the person who runs the business rather than for the person who administers the Act. Every rate and threshold is this year's, every rule is named with the section that creates it, and the working is shown. The official page for your state answers for your state, and nobody else's page answers for the other seven.
Reading is useful. Knowing what your own group owes in all eight states is better.
Contractors
Under a relevant contract, a payment to a contractor is wages unless the business can bring it inside one of the eight exclusions in section 32(2). They are not alternatives to be argued in the abstract: each one asks a specific factual question, and each is established by a specific record the business either kept at the time or did not.
Where the contract is principally for the supply of materials or equipment and the labour is ancillary to that supply, the payment is not wages. A supplier who delivers and installs a piece of plant is the standard case.
What establishes it: the contract and the invoices, showing the split between goods and labour, and that the goods are the substance of the deal. A labour-only invoice with a small materials line will not carry it.
Two limbs, and both have to be satisfied. The services must not be ordinarily required by this business, and the contractor must supply services of that kind to the public generally - which the Acts treat as meaning to two or more other principals in the financial year.
What establishes it: evidence that the business does not routinely need that kind of work, and evidence from the contractor of their other clients. The second half usually comes from the contractor and has to be asked for.
This one is about the business, not the contractor. If the business ordinarily needs services of that kind for fewer than 180 days in the financial year, payments for them are exempt however many contractors provide them.
What establishes it: records showing the pattern of the need across several years. Seasonal work is the classic case - a grower who needs pickers for eleven weeks, or a retailer who needs extra hands only in December.
The exemption businesses reach for first, and the one most often miscounted. It applies where this particular contractor provided services to this business on 90 days or fewer in the financial year.
It is counted in days on which any services were provided. One hour on a Tuesday counts as a whole day. Days on which two contractors under the same contract both worked count once. And the count runs across the whole year, not per engagement.
Two hours every Tuesday and Thursday ≈ 104 days. Past the exemption, on eight hours a week.
What establishes it: a day-by-day record. Timesheets, site diaries, job dockets or dated invoices. A monthly invoice with no dates on it proves nothing about days.
Where none of the mechanical tests fits, the Commissioner may be satisfied that the contractor ordinarily performs services of that kind to the public generally, and exempt the payments on that basis. It is decided case by case and it has to be applied for.
What establishes it: the contractor's client list, the proportion of their income from this business, how they market themselves, and how long the pattern has run. A contractor earning 90% of their income from one principal will not carry it.
Where the contractor employs or engages somebody else to perform the work, the payment is not for one person's labour and is exempt. It does not apply to a partnership of natural persons who do the work themselves, and the person engaged has to actually perform some of the work.
What establishes it: the contractor's own payroll or subcontractor records for the period, and evidence that the additional person worked on this business's jobs. This is the strongest of the eight and the easiest to lose, because it depends on records held by somebody else.
Where the contract is for the conveyance of goods by means of a vehicle provided by the person conveying them, the payment is exempt. It covers genuine owner-drivers and does not extend to a driver operating the principal's vehicle.
What establishes it: vehicle registration and ownership, and a contract describing the work as the carriage of goods rather than as driving services.
Where the contract is for the procurement of people to sell goods door to door for a retailer, the payment is exempt. It is narrow and it is rarely relevant outside direct selling businesses.
Four things that businesses put forward constantly and that decide nothing:
All four are relevant to whether somebody is an employee at common law. None of them is relevant to whether a contract is a relevant contract, because the deeming provision does not ask that question. What a relevant contract is.
Where an exemption is genuinely arguable rather than obvious, a private ruling from the relevant revenue office binds that office on those facts. It is worth the effort where the amounts are material and the answer is not clear, and it is worth remembering that a ruling from one office says nothing about the other seven.
| Record | Which exemptions it goes to |
|---|---|
| The written agreement | All of them - it is the starting point |
| Total paid, excluding GST and materials | Sizing the exposure |
| Days worked, dated | 90 days, 180 days |
| The contractor's other clients | Public generally, Commissioner's discretion |
| Who else performed the work | Engages others |
| Vehicle ownership | Owner-driver |
Assembled during the year, that is an afternoon's work. Assembled three years later during an audit, it is often impossible - and an exemption that cannot be evidenced is an exemption that does not apply.
The calculator prices your group with the contractor payments in the wage base and without them, across all eight jurisdictions, so you know what the argument is worth before you have it.
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About us
Somebody at a barbecue mentions grouping, or a letter arrives asking about related entities, and a business owner who has done everything asked of them for six years discovers that two companies they always thought of as separate have been one employer for payroll tax the whole time. There is no notice, no registration, no form: it happens automatically, by law, from the day the connection existed. Five years of tax, penalty tax and interest can be assessed at once, and the first anybody knows about it is often the assessment.
None of this is secret. The grouping provisions are in the Payroll Tax Act 2007 and its equivalents in each state and territory: related corporations, common control, common employees and the tracing of interests through trusts and companies. The relevant contract provisions and their eight exemptions are in section 32. Penalty tax and the reassessment window are in the harmonised Taxation Administration Acts. Every rate, threshold, phase-out and surcharge is published by the eight revenue offices and reset on 1 July. What almost nobody sees is their own figures, because payroll tax is eight separate taxes and each office answers only for itself.
Payroll Tax Grouping does one thing: it applies all eight published schedules to your wage figures at once, splits each tax-free threshold the way the Acts split it, adds the surcharges and levies, and shows you in full what they produce. Every state priced, every lawful way of dealing with a shortfall ranked on one stated measure, and every working visible so you can check it, argue with it, or take it to somebody who can.
We do not tell you what to do. We are not licensed to, and we cannot rule on whether your businesses are grouped. That is a question of law about your own arrangements, and it is answered by each revenue office separately. The arithmetic is the part people are missing, not the opinion. What an exclusion order involves if you decide the grouping question is worth arguing.
Short version: we hold as little as we can, we never ask for the identifiers that matter most, and the calculation runs on your own device. The long version is below, because you are entitled to it.
This policy explains how XTO Pty. Ltd. (we, us, our) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information, and how you can access, correct or complain about it. We handle personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs).
It applies to calculatedchoices.com.au and to every email we send you. It does not apply to any third party site we link to.
We do not ask for, and you should never send us, your Medicare number, tax file number, ABNs, client identification numbers, bank account details or any individual employee's name, bank account details or card number. The calculator does not need them. If you send one to us anyway we will delete it rather than store it.
We do not collect sensitive information as defined in the Privacy Act - health information, racial or ethnic origin, political or religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or criminal record. Where the calculator asks about care needs it asks about funding categories, never about a medical condition.
Information you give us
Information collected automatically
In your browser, on your device. The figures you type into the calculator are processed locally to produce your result. They are transmitted to us only if you choose to save a scenario to your account. If you never save one, we never receive them.
Two exceptions, and both are things you have to choose to do:
A paid report comes with an optional assistant you can ask questions about your own figures. It is the one part of this site that sends anything to a third party, so it is set out here in full.
It is entirely your choice, and it does nothing until you use it. Nothing is sent anywhere unless you open the assistant and ask a question. If you never open it, this section does not apply to you at all, and the rest of the report works exactly the same.
What is sent when you do ask
What is not sent
What travels is a set of amounts and categories. On its own it does not identify anybody, and we do not send anything alongside it that would.
Who processes it
The request is answered by Google's Gemini API, which processes it outside Australia - see sections 10 and 11. We do not train any model on your figures and we have no arrangement permitting anyone to do so; what Google does with data sent to its API is governed by its own terms, which we do not control.
How long it is kept
Because the assistant is optional, you can have the entire paid report without any of the above ever happening. Nothing in the report is withheld from somebody who never opens it.
We use the following, and nothing else:
You can clear or block these through your browser at any time. Clearing them will sign you out and reset your preferences; the site will otherwise work normally.
We use Google Analytics and Google Ads to measure how people find and use the site and whether our advertising is worth running. Where these are enabled, Google receives your IP address, device and browser information, the pages you viewed, and - when you complete a purchase - the order reference and the amount paid. Google may set its own cookies and may combine this with data it holds from other sources. Google's handling of that data is governed by its own privacy policy, not ours.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not disclose it to data brokers, advertising networks other than as described above, revenue offices, the Australian Taxation Office, accountants or tax agents, or anyone who might try to sell you something.
You can opt out of Google Analytics using Google's browser add-on, and you can adjust personalised advertising in your Google account settings.
Payments are processed by PayPal. Your card or account details are entered on PayPal's systems and are never transmitted to, seen by, or stored on our servers. We receive only the transaction reference, the amount, the status and the email address associated with the payment.
Some of these providers store or process data outside Australia, principally in the United States (Google, PayPal) and, depending on our email provider, in other countries. By using the site you acknowledge that we take reasonable steps to ensure overseas recipients handle your information consistently with the APPs, but that we cannot control and are not accountable for how an overseas recipient handles it once disclosed, and that you may not be able to seek redress in that jurisdiction.
The site runs entirely over HTTPS. Passwords are stored as salted PBKDF2 hashes, not as text anyone here can read. Access to the database is restricted to those who need it. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee the security of information transmitted over the internet, but we take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure.
If a data breach occurs that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner as required by the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme.
If you give us your email address for a free estimate we may follow up about the full report. Every commercial email we send identifies us and carries a functional unsubscribe link, as required by the Spam Act 2003 (Cth). We action unsubscribes immediately. You will still receive transactional email - receipts, access details and password resets - because those are not marketing.
Write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au. We will:
We will respond within 30 days and will not charge you for making a request. We may need to verify your identity first.
If you think we have breached the APPs, write to support@calculatedchoices.com.au with "Privacy complaint" in the subject line. We will acknowledge within 5 business days and respond substantively within 30 days.
If you are not satisfied with our response, you may complain to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner: oaic.gov.au, 1300 363 992, or GPO Box 5288, Sydney NSW 2001.
The site is intended for business owners, bookkeepers and accountants working out whether a group of businesses is liable for payroll tax. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18.
We may update this policy. The effective date at the top changes when we do. Where a change is material we will tell you by email or by notice on the site before it takes effect. Continuing to use the site after that means you accept the updated policy.
Privacy Officer
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au
Plain English, because the whole point is that you understand it. Section 6 is the one that matters most - please read it before you rely on anything here.
By using calculatedchoices.com.au (the site) or buying a pass you agree to these terms. If you do not agree, do not use the site. In these terms we, us and our mean XTO Pty. Ltd.; you means the person using the site or, where you use it on behalf of another person or an entity, both you and that person or entity.
You must be at least 18 and legally able to enter a contract. The site is intended for use in Australia and applies Australian law and the published payroll tax rates, thresholds and grouping rules of the eight Australian revenue offices only. If you use it from outside Australia you do so on your own initiative and are responsible for local compliance.
Payroll Tax Grouping is an information and calculation service. It applies the published payroll tax rates, thresholds and grouping rules of the eight Australian revenue offices to figures you supply and reports what those rules produce, showing its workings and naming the fee schedule used.
It is not financial product advice, personal advice, legal advice, tax advice, accounting advice or tax advice, and it is not a recommendation to acquire, dispose of or deal in any financial product.
You should obtain independent, licensed advice before acting. Any decision you make is yours.
We take considerable care to keep the rates current and the formulas right, and every report prints the schedule it was built on. Even so:
Always confirm before you act.
You acknowledge and agree that you are solely responsible for evaluating the output, for verifying it against official sources, for obtaining independent professional advice, and for every decision you make or do not make. We are not your adviser and no fiduciary or advisory relationship arises from your use of the site.
You are responsible for keeping your password confidential and for everything done under your account. Tell us immediately at support@calculatedchoices.com.au if you suspect unauthorised use. We may suspend or close an account we reasonably believe is being used in breach of these terms.
A report you export as a PDF or otherwise save remains yours to keep and to show to family, an adviser or a state or territory revenue office. That licence is personal and non‑commercial. It does not permit republication, resale, or use as part of a product or service you provide to others.
Our promise: if the calculator cannot properly model your circumstances, or something has gone wrong, write to us within 14 days of purchase and we will refund the pass. No form and no argument. We would rather refund you than have you rely on a number that does not fit.
This is a voluntary commercial guarantee offered in addition to, and it does not limit, your rights under the Australian Consumer Law. Refunds are made to the original payment method within five business days of us accepting the request.
You must not:
All content, code, calculation methodology, report design, text and branding on the site is owned by us or licensed to us and is protected by copyright and other laws. Legislated rates and government data are not owned by anyone; our expression, arrangement and implementation of them is. Nothing in these terms transfers ownership to you.
We aim to keep the site available but do not guarantee it will be uninterrupted, timely, secure or error free. We may modify, suspend or discontinue any part of it, and may perform maintenance, at any time. If we permanently discontinue the service while your pass is running, we will refund the unused portion.
The site relies on third party services including PayPal, Google and our hosting and email providers, and links to third party sites and government resources. We are not responsible for those services or sites, their availability, their content or their terms.
Our goods and services come with guarantees that cannot be excluded under the Australian Consumer Law. For major failures with the service, you are entitled to cancel your service contract with us and to a refund for the unused portion, or to compensation for its reduced value. You are also entitled to be compensated for any other reasonably foreseeable loss or damage. If the failure does not amount to a major failure, you are entitled to have problems with the service rectified in a reasonable time and, if this is not done, to cancel your contract and obtain a refund for the unused portion of the contract.
Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies any consumer guarantee, right or remedy conferred by the Australian Consumer Law or any other law which cannot lawfully be excluded, restricted or modified. If any part of these terms would do so, that part does not apply.
Subject always to section 15, and to the maximum extent permitted by law:
You agree that this allocation of risk is reasonable given the price of the service and that the service is information rather than advice.
Our liability is reduced to the extent your loss is caused or contributed to by you, including by entering incorrect figures, by failing to verify output against official sources, or by failing to obtain independent advice.
To the maximum extent permitted by law, you indemnify us against any claim, loss, liability, cost or expense (including reasonable legal costs) arising from your breach of these terms, your misuse of the site, or your provision of the site's output to a third party who relies on it. This does not apply to the extent the claim arises from our own breach, negligence or wilful misconduct.
You may stop using the site at any time. We may suspend or terminate your access immediately if you breach these terms. Sections 4, 5, 6, 9, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19 and 20 survive termination.
Our Privacy Policy forms part of these terms and explains how we handle personal information.
These terms are governed by the laws of New South Wales, Australia. You and we submit to the non‑exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of New South Wales and the courts entitled to hear appeals from them.
XTO Pty. Ltd. (ACN [ACN NOT SET])
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills NSW 2010
support@calculatedchoices.com.au