Payroll tax amnesty for contracted general practitioners
Expressions of interest for the payroll tax amnesty are closed.
On 3 February 2023, the Queensland Government announced it would provide a payroll tax amnesty in relation to payments made to contracted general practitioners (GPs) until 30 June 2025.
Recent changes mean the amnesty now covers the period until 30 November 2024.
Expressions of interest for the amnesty closed on 10 November 2023. Most medical practices are not required to pay payroll tax on payments made to contracted GPs up to 30 November 2024 and for the previous 5 years (i.e. from 2018) if they lodged an expression of interest and met the eligibility criteria.
What happens next
If you completed the expression of interest in time, you would have received an email with details of what you needed to do.
From 1 December 2024, wages paid by a medical practice to a GP (as a contractor or employee) are exempt from payroll tax under an administrative arrangement. See the public ruling on the exemption (PTAQ014.1).
Who was eligible
The amnesty was limited to payments made to contracted GPs. For the purposes of the amnesty, a GP is registered as a general practitioner with the Medical Board of Australia. To satisfy this requirement, the doctor must have more than just general registration with the Medical Board. They must be able to show (with supporting evidence if requested):
- specialist registration in general practice
or
- general registration and have been registered on the Vocational Register of General Practitioners on 16 June 2021.
If this requirement cannot be satisfied, the Commissioner of State Revenue will consider other supporting evidence that a doctor registered with the Medical Board is a GP; for example, a registered doctor who is a fellow of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners yet to receive specialist registration in general practice.
The amnesty was not available for payments to:
- contracted GPs where an exemption applies (because no payroll tax liability would arise if the payment is exempt)
- GPs who are common law employees
- other medical doctors or allied health professionals
- other types of contractors.
See the following documents:
-
- administrative arrangement that sets out the eligibility for the amnesty
- Commissioner of State Revenue’s guidelines on how the amnesty will be administered
- public ruling on relevant contracts—medical centres (PTAQ000.6).
Also consider…
- Find out how to register for payroll tax.
- Learn about lodging payroll tax returns.
- Read about payroll tax exemptions for contractor payments.
- Find out about the payroll tax amnesty for contracted dentists.