Payroll tax: Business leaders back Gold Coast mayor’s call to slash all payroll tax in five year trial
The Gold Coast will be declared a payroll tax-free zone for five years under a bold proposal put forward to lure “the next Google” to the city.
Business
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GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has called on the State Government to declare the city a special economic region without payroll tax.
In a bid to stimulate the economy and attract “the next Google or Facebook”, the Mayor has unveiled a proposal for a five-year cancellation of the tax on employers in the region as a precursor to extending it across the state.
His call has been enthusiastically backed by business bosses who say such a move would make the Gold Coast “extremely attractive” to big businesses looking to relocate.
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Cr Tate said the move would establish the city as an economic powerhouse.
“At the end of the five years you would see the magnitude of growth of the Gold Coast in that time and the amount of overall tax the State Government will get from economic growth will be beyond that which is lost from payroll tax,” he said.
“If I am proven right then this should be expanded to Brisbane and beyond.
“Apart from the tax being wrong, it is taxing businesses who are creating jobs, so if you remove it you will see a migration of big business here.’’
Cr Tate argued special status and dumping payroll tax were important for the city to withstand the headwinds of a slowing economy.
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He likened such a move to the abolition of death duties in Queensland by the Bjelke-Petersen government in the 1970s, which was credited in part for laying the foundations for the city’s development and economic boom of the 1980s.
Calls for payroll tax reform have grown louder in recent months, with major business figures lobbying the Government.
Virgin Australia famously relocated its headquarters to Brisbane in 2000 after cutting a deal for payroll tax relief from the Beattie Government.
The proposal has been backed by both the North and Central Gold Coast chambers of commerce.
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Central chamber president Martin Hall described it as “bold”.
“This would bring us the next Google, the next Facebook, the next Yahoo,” he said.
“And what a time to do it, while we are on the doorstep of a potential Olympic Games in 2032. It would epitomise the city’s live, work, play mantra.
“Obviously this would need to be thought out and heavily consulted but it would really take the economic pressure off.”
North chamber president Martin Brady said he believed a trial would be successful.
“It is an aggressive tax on employment and it would be incredibly welcome here, the small business capital,” he said.
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