Restaurant bookkeepers for Perth, set up for WA's rules.

In WA, how you own the venue decides your staff's employment system

WA runs two systems of employment law for the private sector, and the employer's business structure decides which one covers your staff. Sole traders, partnerships and trusts with no company as trustee are in WA's state system.

A Pty Ltd that sells food and drink for a fee is likely to be a trading corporation, which puts it in the national system and on the national awards. We'd settle this before setting up a single pay rate.

If you trade through a company, our piece on which award covers your cafe applies as written. If you don't, WA's Wageline on 1300 655 266 answers state system questions.

Payroll tax starts at $1 million of wages, added up across the group

RevenueWA charges 5.5% payroll tax once a business, or a group, pays more than $1 million a year in Australian taxable wages. Between $1 million and $7.5 million the tax-free amount shrinks by $2 for every $13 of wages over $1 million, so at $7.5 million there's none left.

Super contributions count as wages. Businesses where the same people hold more than 50% form one group, even when each venue is its own Pty Ltd. Only one member claims the tax-free amount, and every member is liable for the group's tax.

What a third venue does to the payroll tax bill

Take an owner with two Perth venues, each doing about $24,000 a week and each paying $8,000 a week in wages and super. That's $832,000 a year between them, under the line. Then a third venue opens on the same numbers:

• Wages and super, three venues: $1,248,000 a year
• Amount over $1 million: $248,000
• Tax-free amount: $1,000,000 less $248,000 × 2/13, which leaves $961,846
• Taxable wages: $1,248,000 less $961,846, which is $286,154
• Payroll tax at 5.5%: $15,738 a year, about $303 a week

Only the third venue pushed the group over, but the tax falls on wages at all three. Charged against the new venue alone, $303 a week is 1.3% of its sales, and we'd want that in the plan before the lease is signed.

The group's wages now run at $104,000 a month, over WA's $83,333 monthly line, so it has to register within seven days after the end of the first month it goes over. Our piece on wage cost shows where payroll tax sits in the weekly sum.

Workers compensation comes from a licensed insurer and doesn't renew itself

WA's scheme runs under the Workers Compensation and Injury Management Act 2023 and is privately underwritten: you buy the policy from an insurer licensed by WorkCover WA. Business insurance packs typically don't include it, and public liability doesn't cover it.

The policy doesn't renew automatically. Each year the insurer wants a remuneration statement before you renew, and that figure comes out of your payroll. Family members can be workers under the Act even when they live in the family home, so your policy has to cover them too.

Lease trouble goes to the Small Business Commissioner first

Most WA retail shop leases of 1,000 square metres or less fall under the Commercial Tenancy (Retail Shops) Agreements Act 1985. The landlord has to give you a disclosure statement and tenant guide at least seven days before you sign, and the lease can't require you to open at specified hours.

If you and the landlord can't settle a dispute, the Small Business Commissioner at the Small Business Development Corporation tries to resolve it, sometimes through mediation. In most cases you need the Commissioner's certificate before you can apply to the State Administrative Tribunal.

WA pays Boxing Day twice this year and adds holidays from 2028

Boxing Day falls on Saturday 26 December, and WA makes Monday 28 December a public holiday as well. Easter Sunday is already a WA public holiday.

From 2028 the Public and Bank Holiday Amendment Act 2026 adds Easter Saturday and a new Show Day, and moves WA Day and the King's Birthday. For a company on the Restaurant Award, a Level 2 casual costs $67.70 an hour on a public holiday against $40.62 on a Saturday, so Easter Saturday 2028 adds $27.08 to every Level 2 casual hour you roster.

The week we run for Perth venues, from Sydney

We're in Bella Vista, in Sydney, and look after over thirty venues in every state and territory, WA included. Everything happens in your Xero file:

• Payroll: every week, with STP lodged and super paid.
• Supplier invoices: captured and coded as they arrive, then paid in one weekly run.
• Reconciliation: the bank and every card and delivery payout, weekly.
• Friday: one page with sales, wages, food cost, net profit and what to put aside for BAS.

When we take over a file we look for what will cost money later. We have found ATO debt parked in a file and forgotten about. If that's where you are, our ATO debt help page sets out what we do first.

Core, at $499 a month, is the weekly work our hospitality bookkeepers do, plus a monthly call with Amit. Essentials, at $599, adds monthly IAS and quarterly BAS lodged by a registered tax agent, and Foundation, at $799, adds company and personal tax returns. Our hospitality accounting page covers that side, and our restaurant accounting page shows what a drifting week costs a $22,000 restaurant.

Who we're not for

If you want a bookkeeper who walks into your Perth venue each week, hire locally. We work remotely, through Xero, email and the monthly call.

For everyone else, tell us about your venue below. We reply within one business day with a flat price.