WA payroll tax calculator

Western Australian payroll tax applies at 5.50%, but the tax-free part isn’t a fixed threshold — it’s a deductible amount that tapers away as your wages grow. You get the full $1,000,000 below the annual threshold, nothing at all above $7,500,000, and a sliding amount in between.

The taper is driven by your Australia-wide wages, not your WA wages — which is why two businesses with the same WA payroll can end up with very different deductible amounts.

How the tapering deductible works

Western Australia doesn’t apportion a threshold by wage share the way NSW and Victoria do, and it doesn’t use an independent phase-out rate the way Queensland does. Instead the taper rate is derived from the two thresholds themselves:

Taper value = annual threshold ÷ (upper threshold − annual threshold)
= $1,000,000 ÷ $6,500,000 = 2/13

Deductible = $1,000,000 − [(Australian wages − $1,000,000) × 2/13]

In plain terms: the tax-free amount drops by $2 for every $13 of Australia-wide wages above $1,000,000. Taking RevenueWA’s own published example, a business with $1,200,000 in Australia-wide wages has $200,000 of wages above the threshold, so it loses $200,000 × 2/13 = $30,769 of its deductible — leaving $969,231 tax-free rather than the full million.

Why interstate wages matter here

Because the taper runs on Australia-wide wages, wages you pay outside Western Australia shrink your WA deductible even though they’re taxed elsewhere. A WA-only business with $1,200,000 in wages keeps $969,231 tax-free; a business with the same $1,200,000 in WA wages plus $2,000,000 interstate has $3,200,000 in Australian wages, and its deductible tapers much further. See how interstate wages affect your threshold for the general principle across states.

Grouping

Grouped employers are assessed on the group’s combined Australia-wide wages, which pushes the group further along the taper than any single member would reach alone. Our grouping explainer covers how the common control and tracing tests work.

What this page does not model

Large-employer surcharges. Secondary sources refer to a higher maximum marginal rate for employers with very large Australia-wide wages, but RevenueWA’s employer guide — the source these figures come from — states a flat 5.50% with no tier table, and we could not obtain an official rate schedule. Rather than model an unsourced tier, we model nothing: if your Australia-wide wages approach $100 million, confirm your rate with RevenueWA before relying on any figure here.

Part-year employers. RevenueWA publishes no worked example for employers who didn’t pay wages for the full year, so any part-year figure we produce is a reasonable estimate rather than a verified one, and is flagged as such.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Western Australian payroll tax rate?

5.50% on Western Australian taxable wages, after the deductible amount is subtracted. Unlike Queensland, Western Australia does not apply a higher rate tier at a set wage level in the employer guide this calculator is built from.

What is the Western Australian payroll tax threshold?

$1,000,000 in Australia-wide wages. Above that the deductible amount tapers away, reaching zero at $7,500,000 — so employers above the upper threshold pay tax on every dollar of their WA wages.

How is the WA deductible amount calculated?

Deductible amount = $1,000,000 − [(Australia-wide wages − $1,000,000) × 2/13]. In plain terms the tax-free amount falls by $2 for every $13 of wages above the annual threshold. RevenueWA's own worked example: Australia-wide wages of $1,200,000 give a deductible amount of $969,231.

Is the WA taper based on my WA wages or my total Australian wages?

Total Australia-wide wages. This catches people out — two businesses with identical WA wages get different deductible amounts if one of them also pays wages interstate. The deductible is then subtracted from WA wages specifically.

Does Western Australia have a surcharge for large employers?

Possibly, and this calculator does not model it. RevenueWA’s employer guide states a flat rate with no tier table, but secondary sources refer to a higher maximum marginal rate for employers with very large Australia-wide wages. We could not source an official rate table, so nothing is modelled — if your Australia-wide wages approach $100 million, confirm your rate with RevenueWA directly.

Is this the official WA payroll tax calculator?

No. This is an independent tool and is not affiliated with RevenueWA or the Department of Finance. Confirm your liability with RevenueWA or a registered tax agent before lodging.

Source: RevenueWA — Payroll Tax Employer Guide, Calculation. Last verified 2026-08-31.