You must lodge an annual return by 21 July each year for the previous financial year and pay any outstanding amounts. If you have overpaid tax for the year, we will send you a refund or apply the amount to other liabilities you may have.
Payroll tax toolbox
Useful links
- Payroll Tax Act 1971
- Apprenticeships—Queensland
- Community Development and Employment Project
- Vocational Education, Training and Employment Act 2000
- Workers’ Compensation and Rehabilitation Act 2003
- Income Tax Assessment Act 1936
- NSW Office of State Revenue
- Vic. State Revenue Office
- WA Office of State Revenue
- RevenueSA
- Tas. State Revenue Office
- ACT Revenue Office
- NT Revenue Office
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What’s on this page ...
The annual return is a breakdown of the past year’s payroll tax, and is used to confirm or adjust your liability.
Lodging annual returns
At the end of a financial year, you must:
- lodge an annual return for taxable wages paid or payable during the year
- compare the sum of the wages in your periodic returns with your annual wages
- pay any outstanding amounts (called your ‘annual liability’) by 21 July.
From 1 July 2009, you no longer need to make a separate return or payment for the last periodic return period. The liability for any return period that includes June will be included in the annual return.
You can lodge your return online, or contact us on 1300 300 734 by 1 July to request a paper return.
If you have lodged a final return during the year, you still need to lodge an annual return. We will not take into account any wages paid for the period stated in the final return when working out your annual liability.
Calculating your annual liability or refund
If you lodge your annual return online, your annual deductions and liability or refund will be automatically calculated.
You can also use the annual liability calculator to calculate your liability or refund before lodging your annual return.
Do you need help completing your annual return?
Non-grouped employers
You will need the following information to calculate your annual payroll tax liability:
- Queensland taxable wages
- interstate wages.
Grouped employer
Each group member must lodge an annual return. If you are in a group, but are not the DGE, you are not usually entitled to a deduction.
You will need the following information to calculate your annual payroll tax:
- Queensland taxable wages
- interstate wages
Designated group employer
If you are the designated group employer (DGE) on 30 June, you will need:
- your Queensland taxable wages
- the total group Queensland taxable wages
- your interstate wages
- the total group interstate wages
If you were not the DGE for the whole year, your annual return will only cover the part of the year that you were a DGE as you should have submitted a final return when your status changed.
If your annual deduction is greater than your own taxable wages, you can nominate other members of your group to share the excess. If you do not nominate anyone, the Commissioner can decide which group member will receive this amount.
If a refund of payroll tax is due at the end of the financial year, we will process the refund when we receive your return.
Example
This example uses group Australian taxable wages for $1,789,776 and group Queensland taxable wages of $1,356,789.
