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Construction long service levy calculator
Work out the portable long service leave levy on any Australian construction project. One calculator, all eight jurisdictions: QLeave, CoINVEST, the Long Service Corporation and the rest.
What the portable long service leave levy actually is
Construction work is project-based, so a worker can spend twenty years in the industry without ever spending seven years with one employer. Portable long service leave schemes exist to fix that: entitlements attach to the worker and the industry rather than to a single employer.
Here is the part almost every summary gets wrong: the eight schemes are not the same instrument. Only New South Wales, Queensland and the Northern Territory charge a levy on the value of the project, payable per project. Victoria, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania and the ACT have no project levy at all. Their schemes are funded by employer contributions on wages, reported periodically.
Who pays, and when
In the three project-levy jurisdictions the levy is payable by the person for whom the work is carried out (typically the owner or developer), though in practice it is frequently paid by the head contractor and recovered through the contract. Check which, because it is a real cost line and it is more often assumed than agreed.
Timing matters more than most people expect. In New South Wales the levy must be paid before building work starts, and an approving authority cannot issue a construction certificate or complying development certificate until it is. In Queensland it is payable before the development permit issues. That puts it on the critical path rather than in the accounts payable queue.
Why the numbers differ across state lines
Among the three project-levy schemes, each sets its own rate, its own minimum project value, and (the detail that catches people out) its own GST basis. New South Wales calculates on a GST-inclusive figure and Queensland on a GST-exclusive one. Run the same project cost through both without converting and you are out by roughly ten per cent.
Definitions differ too. What counts as construction work, and whether fit-out, demolition, landscaping or certain civil works are captured, is not uniform. A builder working across borders cannot safely reuse one state’s assumptions in another.
Rates and thresholds are revised, typically each financial year. Any figure carried forward from last year’s project is a figure worth re-checking, which is why the calculator above carries the date its rates were last verified.
The eight schemes at a glance
Levy on project value: New South Wales (Long Service Corporation), Queensland (QLeave) and the Northern Territory (NT Build). Employer contributions on wages, with no project levy: Victoria (LeavePlus, formerly CoINVEST), South Australia, Western Australia (MyLeave), Tasmania (TasBuild) and the ACT (ACT Leave).
Each authority publishes its own calculator and lodgement portal for its own scheme. What none of them publishes is a single view across all eight, which is the gap this tool closes. Enter the project cost once and see the levy, the threshold, the GST basis and the lodging authority for every jurisdiction side by side, including the five where the answer is that no project levy applies.
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