General Practitioner Payroll Tax

Mrs HURN (Schubert) (14:20): My question is to the Treasurer. Are allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and dentists, impacted and captured by the changes to GP payroll tax coming into effect at the start of the next financial year?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:21): There are no changes to the payroll tax regime which are coming into effect. The only thing which is changing is the understanding by some businesses that they may be liable for payroll tax, that they likely have been liable for some period of time for payroll tax—

Mrs Hurn interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —I understand the question; I am going about answering it—and the time that we have given them to come into compliance. Are other businesses liable for payroll tax? Well, it depends on those particular businesses. Payroll tax doesn't apply to businesses that only have a small number of employees because it's likely that the taxable wages of that business fall below the tax-free threshold, but if they are a larger business with a larger number of employees that have a larger amount of taxable wages, as defined in the Payroll Tax Act, then they are likely to be liable for payroll tax.

Indeed, the advice that I have from RevenueSA is that there are not only allied health and physiotherapy type businesses which are currently paying payroll tax but, as I said in my earlier answer, there are already some GP practices which are paying payroll tax. That, again, emphasises the challenge that governments around the country, including here in South Australia, have: how do we try to bring people into compliance with their pre-existing payroll tax obligations and do it in a way which gives them fair warning and a long runway to come into compliance with these, and that doesn't immediately upset their businesses from day one—which is what is being proposed in some other places around the country—and do it in a way where we are providing as much time, effort and resources as we can to help them understand and work through the issue.