Union payments and payroll tax

Your union branch or sub-branch (also called a ‘lodge’) may need to register as an employer in certain circumstances, depending on whether your branch is incorporated under a statute or not.

This applies to employee and employer unions or associations.

The state branch of a federally registered union will not be a separate legal entity from its federal or parent union, unless the branch is separately incorporated under a statute.

Branch not incorporated under a statute

If your branch or sub-branch is not incorporated under a statute separately from its parent union, the parent union is considered to be the employer of your branch or sub-branch’s employees.

If this applies, your parent union must:

• add its wages to those of its branches and sub-branches when determining whether it is liable for payroll tax
• be the only employer registered for payroll tax
• include all the Queensland and interstate wages of its branches and sub-branches in its payroll tax returns.

Branch incorporated under a statute

If your branch or sub-branch is incorporated under a statute, the branch or sub-branch is:

• a legal entity separate from its parent union
• the employer of its employees for payroll tax.

This includes branches registered and incorporated under the Industrial Relations Act 2016 or the Associations Incorporation Act 1981.

Your branch or sub-branch must:

• determine its payroll tax obligations separately from the parent union
• register for payroll tax when its wages exceed the threshold for registration
• not include any taxable wages paid or payable by the parent union in its payroll tax returns.

Payments to representatives and board members

Payments a union makes to a person are wages for payroll tax purposes if:

• an employer-employee relationship exists between the parties
• or
• the payments are to a director or member of the union’s governing body.

Employer-employee relationship

For the purposes of payroll tax, you will need to determine if an employer-employee relationship exists between the union and an elected representative (e.g. if the representative is under the control of the union and spends a large amount of time working on union matters).

If the elected representative of a union only attends infrequent meetings (e.g. monthly, quarterly or half-yearly) to vote on various union issues, they are generally not in an employer-employee relationship.

Members of a governing body

Remuneration of executive board members of a union is liable for payroll tax, whether or not the board members are employees of that union.

Also consider…

• Learn more about calculating payroll tax.
• Read about taxable wages for payroll tax.
• Learn about employer-employee relationships in the public ruling on determining whether a worker is an employee (PTA038).