A hospitality accountant for Canberra, now payroll tax starts at $1.75 million.

Who we work with in Canberra

Roger Financial does the bookkeeping, payroll and BAS for cafes, restaurants, bars and pubs in Canberra and across the ACT, from a single venue to a small group. Hospitality is the only industry we work in.

If a file is behind, we clean up the history first, free, and as your registered tax agent we bring any overdue BAS, IAS and STP lodgments up to date. Every Friday after that you get one page with sales, wages, food cost and a BAS put-aside figure, which is where a group close to the ACT payroll tax threshold sees its wages climb week by week.

The ACT's payroll tax threshold dropped to $1.75 million on 1 July

Until 30 June 2026 an ACT employer, or group, paid payroll tax once its Australia-wide wages passed $2 million a year. From 1 July 2026 the threshold is $1.75 million, or $145,833.33 a month, and the general rate for a group with Australia-wide wages between $1.75 million and $20 million is 6.75%.

Taxable wages include super and, unless an exemption applies, payments to contractors. Businesses under common control form one group. Only one member claims the threshold, and every member is liable for the group's debts.

What the new threshold costs a four-venue group

Take a Canberra group of four venues, each doing about $24,000 a week and paying about $9,125 a week in wages and super, which is $36,500 a week across the group:

• Wages and super for the year: $1,898,000
• Payroll tax in 2025-26: nil, under the old $2 million threshold
• Over the new $1.75 million threshold: $148,000
• Payroll tax at 6.75%: $9,990 a year
• Per week: $192, or $48 a venue

That group's wages run at about $158,167 a month, over the monthly threshold. The law requires you to register within 7 days after the end of the first month you go over, so for a group like this July's wages started the clock. Tax paid late can bring penalty tax and interest.

If your group is anywhere near $1.75 million, we'd do three things this month:

• Add it up: wages and super for every business you're grouped with, anywhere in Australia, from 1 July.
• Find the first month over: the first month above $145,833.33 sets the date, 7 days after that month ended.
• Put it in wage cost: carry the weekly payroll tax figure next to wages and super, so the week's numbers include it.

Our piece on paying yourself keeps the ATO's share apart from the week's takings. We'd keep the payroll tax apart the same way.

A venue in Queanbeyan counts towards the ACT threshold

The ACT uses Australia-wide wages to decide whether you pay, then cuts your threshold to the ACT share of those wages. A group with venues in Canberra and Queanbeyan counts both towards the $1.75 million and claims only the ACT share of it here. NSW sets its own threshold and rate for the Queanbeyan wages.

Workers compensation follows the border too. Each worker needs cover in one state or territory, worked out by the State of Connection test, which starts with where the worker usually works. A chef who splits the week between kitchens on both sides of the border needs that test applied before the policy is placed.

Trading without workers compensation ends in a cease business order

The ACT's private sector scheme is underwritten by private insurers approved by WorkSafe ACT. Allianz, Guild, QBE, CGU and GIO are on its list of licensed insurers.

An employer without a current policy gets a default notice to get one within 10 days, then a second notice, then a cease business order giving 5 days before the business must stop trading, with an infringement notice at each step.

Canberra Day, Reconciliation Day and two Boxing Day holidays

The ACT has Canberra Day, Monday 8 March 2027, and Reconciliation Day, Monday 31 May 2027, as well as Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. This Christmas, Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December and Monday 28 December is a public holiday too.

Under the Restaurant Award a Level 2 casual costs $67.70 an hour on each of those days. A venue that trades on both Boxing Day dates pays that rate twice in three days.

Leases need a disclosure statement 14 days ahead, and disputes go to the Magistrates Court

The Leases (Commercial and Retail) Act 2001 covers retail premises in the ACT, apart from premises over 1,000 square metres leased to a listed company. The landlord must give you a disclosure statement at least 14 days before the lease is entered into.

Disputes under the Act go to the ACT Magistrates Court, with no cap on the amount it can order. The court starts with a case management meeting, and where the parties look likely to settle it can send them to mediation or another way of resolving it first.

Hospitality accounting for Canberra venues, from Sydney

We're in Sydney and look after over thirty venues in every state and territory, the ACT included. Payroll goes out weekly with STP and super, supplier invoices are coded as they arrive and paid in one weekly run, the bank is reconciled every week, and on Friday you get one page with sales, wages, food cost, profit and a BAS put-aside figure.

We're a registered tax agent, RAN 26371473. Essentials, at $599 a month, has us lodge your monthly IAS and quarterly BAS, and Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns. Our hospitality accounting page covers that side, and our piece on bookkeepers, BAS agents and tax agents explains who can lodge what.

In files we've taken over we have found supplier invoices paid twice. One group we look after had dozens of them, which we have been recovering from the suppliers.

Core, at $499 a month, is the weekly service our hospitality bookkeepers run, with a monthly call with Amit.

Who we're not for

If you want an accountant you can sit across a desk from in Canberra, a local firm suits you better. We work remotely, through Xero, email and the monthly call.

Otherwise, tell us about your venues below and we'll reply within one business day with a flat price.