Starting a business is how most people get ahead without a degree or a big employer. This page lists what WA law requires for two common examples, using the official fee schedules and the timeframes set in law.
Example 1: a café in a vacant shop
1. Planning approval for a change of use: 60 to 90 days
- Fact: Turning a shop into a café usually needs development approval from the council. The council has 60 days to decide, or 90 days if the application must be advertised or referred, and the clock starts only once the application is accepted as complete. If it does not decide in time the application is "deemed refused".
Source: Planning and Development (Local Planning Schemes) Regulations 2015, deemed provisions
2. Building permit for the fit-out: 10 to 25 business days
- Fact: A permit authority has 10 business days for a certified application and 25 for an uncertified one, and the clock stops while it waits for any further information it asks for.
Sources: Building Act 2011, s23; Building Regulations 2012, r20
3. Food business registration
- Fact: A café must be registered as a food business with the "appropriate enforcement agency", which for most businesses is the local council. The council can charge its own fee.
Sources: Food Act 2008, s110; WA Health, Fees and charges by local government
4. A liquor licence to serve wine with a meal
- Fact: A restaurant licence costs $1,058.50 to apply for, plus $175 for each police background check, and an annual licence fee of $697.50 (charged pro rata in the first year).
Our read: the statutory timeframes alone for steps 1 and 2 run to between about two and a half and four months, all while the owner pays rent on an empty shop.
Example 2: a sole electrician who takes on staff
5. Two licences, two fees
- Fact: To work, an electrician needs an electrician's licence ($218 for one year or $714 for five). To contract for work in their own right, they also need an electrical contractor's licence ($795 for one year or $2,101 for three).
Source: Building and Energy fees, 2026-27
6. Payroll tax once wages reach $1 million
- Fact: Once total wages pass $1 million a year, the business starts paying payroll tax at 5.5%, with the tax-free amount phasing out by $7.5 million. The threshold was last raised on 1 July 2020 and has been frozen since.
Source: RevenueWA, payroll tax calculation
Our read: a payroll tax is a tax on hiring. With the threshold frozen while wages rise, more small employers are drawn in every year.
What could change
- One application, one fee and one point of contact for a café or shop to open, with all agencies working to the same deadline.
- Make simple, compliant applications "deemed approved", not deemed refused, when the deadline passes.
- Index the payroll tax threshold to wages.