The Queensland Government’s medical payroll tax hike has been labelled “immoral”. 

The state has issued guidance on the amount of payroll tax medical practices could be liable for, potentially forcing Queenslanders to pay up to $15 more at the doctors, according to a medical accountant. 

GPs say they may have to pass the costs on to patients and cut bulk billing.

AMA Queensland president Maria Boulton has told reporters that the “tax grab” is “immoral”.

“My fear is that vulnerable patients will not have the access to general practice that they did in the past, and that is catastrophic,” she said. 

“When you look at the people who most frequently visit their GP, it's the most vulnerable people, it's people who have chronic disease, it's the elderly, it's young families.

“They are the ones that are going to be having to pay this patient tax.”

Late last year, the Queensland Revenue Office (QRO) issued guidance saying GPs in some circumstances are employees for payroll tax purposes, so the fees they receive from patients via medical clinics should be taxable. 

Medical accountant Paul Copeland says including these service arrangements for payroll tax is a new position for the QRO, and has caused outrage among medical groups. 

“Not one of the ruling examples deals specifically with a service arrangement, they're always talking about contractor arrangements,” he said.

“They're not typically considered contractor arrangements where that doctor provides their services to the medical centre. 

“That's just not how it works. The doctor provides the services to the patients.

“What you're looking at is a lot of practices will be putting a letter together that will go to their patients explaining why their fees have gone up $10 to $15 a visit to cover this additional cost

“There are a few variables such as the patient fees being charged, the bulk billing rates and the percentage that the practice charges the doctor. 

“This will impact the amount which the practice will need to charge just to retain their profit.

“The 'average' is around $10 to $11 to retain your profitability as a medical centre, however this does not take into account any additional administrative burden to calculate and record the tax and deal with the compliance side of things.”

But the QRO says payroll tax liabilities for medical practice contractors have not changed since 2008.

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP) president and Queensland chair Bruce Willett says the increased tax will result in more costly trips to the GP. 

“There is essentially a 4.75 per cent taxation on Medicare payments and other payments patients are making to practices,” he said.

“And that's more than the margin for most practices and unfortunately practices are going to have to pass that on. 

“That's going to worsen the problem we're having with dropping bulk billing rates and increasing out-of-pocket expenses.”

The Queensland branch of the AMA wants GPs to have a tax exemption.

“My fear is that vulnerable patients will not have the access to general practice that they did in the past and that is catastrophic,” Dr Boulton said.

“We need to ensure that our policymakers and politicians, both levels of government, act upon this.

“We're seeing so much ramping, we're seeing the elective surgery lists grow and grow, we're seeing a maternity crisis in central Queensland - this has to stop.”

Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick says the QRO will continue working through concerns with the medical peak bodies.