We recently wrote to the Queensland Treasurer to advocate for small and family businesses, seeking information on what measures are being considered to better support them amid ongoing economic pressures.

This included raising long-standing advocacy regarding potential tax relief measures, such as payroll tax and land tax reductions, stamp duty exemptions on insurance premiums, and broader concerns including industrial relations pressures, rising energy costs and increasing food and product prices.

The Treasurer has since provided the following response, which broadly outlines that due to significant financial challenges the Queensland Government has no plans to amend tax settings at this time:

Tax settings

  • State taxes such as payroll tax, transfer duty, land tax, and insurance duty are important parts of the state’s revenue base that help to meet the costs of delivering essential services and infrastructure across Queensland.
  • Given the significant financial challenges the Queensland Government has inherited, there are no plans to amend tax settings at this time.
  • The government is focused on calmly and methodically working through the challenges of putting our state’s Budget on a more sustainable footing, ensuring Queensland can maintain competitive tax settings to drive economic growth and prosperity.

Payroll tax

  • Queensland’s payroll tax framework compares favourably to other major Australian states, with key elements in place to support small-to-medium businesses.
  • Businesses with payrolls of up to $1.3 million in annual Australian taxable wages do not have a payroll tax liability. This payroll tax threshold is materially higher than the thresholds that apply in New South Wales ($1.2 million), Victoria ($1 million) and Western Australia ($1 million).
  • Meanwhile, Queensland’s standard rate of payroll tax, at 4.75 per cent, is one of the lowest nationally.
  • Queensland also offers a range of exemptions, rebates and deductions which further reduce the payroll tax impost on businesses, including:
    • a payroll tax deduction to annual payrolls between $1.3 million and $10.4 million, which reduces the overall payroll tax liability for small to medium sized businesses
    • most apprentice and trainee wages being exempt from payroll tax, with a further rebate valued at 50 per cent of apprentice and trainee wages reducing the overall payroll tax liability of the employer.

Land Tax for Businesses

  • The thresholds at which land tax becomes payable in Queensland are among the most competitive in Australia.
  • Queensland’s land tax-free threshold of $350,000 for companies is seven times higher than the threshold that applies in Victoria. 

Insurance duty

  • All Australian states and territories (with the exception of the ACT) levy duty on the value of insurance premiums.
  • Queensland, at 9 per cent, has the equal lowest standard rate of insurance duty of all jurisdictions. In addition, unlike some jurisdictions, Queensland does not charge any additional levy on general insurance contracts to fund emergency services.
  • The rate of insurance duty of 9 per cent has been unchanged since 2013. As such, insurance duty has not been a causal factor of strong growth in insurance premiums, which instead reflects a range of drivers including natural disasters and risk‑based pricing by insurance providers.
  • To help put downward pressure on insurance premiums, the Queensland Government is investing significantly in mitigation and resilience initiatives to reduce the impact of severe weather events and addressing youth crime.

Tax competitiveness

  • Queensland continues to have a highly competitive tax regime.
  • The latest ABS data shows Queensland’s tax per capita is substantially lower than the average of other jurisdictions.
  • Queensland’s tax per capita is also forecast to remain significantly lower than the average of other jurisdictions by around $800 in 2025-26 and in every year across the forward estimates, per state mid-year updates.

While the response outlines the current position that no changes to tax settings are planned at this time, we note that many small and family businesses continue to experience increasing financial pressures across multiple areas, including operating costs, compliance requirements and workforce challenges.

We will continue our advocacy to ensure these pressures are recognised, including seeking practical measures that support business viability, sustainability and growth across the Noosa electorate, and will provide further updates as any additional information becomes available.

Budget 2026/27 Requests:

In preparation for the 2026–27 State Budget, we wrote to a number of Ministers seeking consideration of projects, services and infrastructure identified by our electorate that remain unfunded or only partially funded. This included correspondence to the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance, Trade, Employment and Training, requesting the following:

  • A new employment grants program to assist business and industry to device strategies, programs and/or establish consortia designed to transition employees in highly casualised industries, such as hospitality and tourism, to full time employees.
  • Expansion of the Growing Workforce Participation Fund to include Noosa as an eligible region.
  • A new grant for business associations, such as Chambers of Commerce, to establish economic development entities and opportunities.
  • Grants for organisations to implement initiatives such as worker accommodation schemes to address ongoing critical shortfall of affordable accommodation, which result ins taff shortages.

We have received acknowledgement from the relevant Ministers that these requests have been received and referred to the appropriate departments for consideration as part of the budget process.

We will continue to advocate for these measures and provide updates as further information becomes available.

Further information

Financial help, support and advice about managing your business can be found on the Business Queensland’s website at www.business.qld.gov.au.

The Queensland Small Business Commissioner provides dispute assistance and mediation for small businesses. Although they cannot arbitrate matters, make rulings, give directions or issue orders, they will work with you to explore your options and find an informal resolution to your dispute. Contact can be made via 1300 312 344.

The Department of Small and Family Business and that staff are available to discuss any issues and give individual advice regarding the supports or services available, whether financial or otherwise. They can be contacted on 1300 654 687 and you can find more information at www.cdsb.qld.gov.au/small-and-family-business.

Updates on many local matters are available on Noosa 360 at www.sandybolton.com/noosa360. To receive information straight to your email inbox, please subscribe to our monthly newsletter via www.sandybolton.com/newsletters. This also ensures you receive any future Noosa related surveys or polls