Pharmacies should be exempt from payroll tax if GPs are, Capital Chemist's Andrew Topp says

Capital Chemist chief executive and pharmacy guild member Andrew Topp says if doctors are granted a payroll tax exemption, pharmacists should get one, too.

Doctor lobby groups say thousands of Canberrans will be forced to pay more to see the doctor following a court ruling that found general practices should be subject to payroll tax.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has proposed granting a payroll tax exemption on GP practices that bulk-bill 65 per cent of patients. it is an interim measure that would last two years.

Mr Topp said all health care professionals should be subject to same the tax rules. In the ACT, payroll tax applies to any business paying $2 million or more in wages.

"If they're going to make an exemption for doctors, could we have it for every health care professional, please? We [pharmacists] see more people than doctors do, that's for sure," he said.

"The question of an exemption for one set of health care professionals becomes unfair.

"Other health care professionals, be it a physiotherapist, be it a pharmacist, be it a nurse practitioner, should have the same exemptions."

An ACT government spokeswoman said "the ACT government is not proposing any exemptions to payroll tax laws".

General practice clinics have previously been exempt from payroll tax because GPs are contractors.

Mr Topp said most of the pharmacists at Capital Chemist were employed directly, but they sometimes have short-term locums employed on contracts.

"[My understanding is that the] short-term contract is captured under the payroll tax umbrella, and is then declared as part of the income. So pharmacies have been paying this tax according to those rules for decades," he said.

If pharmacists were exempt from payroll tax, services and medications would be cheaper, he said.

"It can be a significant amount of money, and that becomes a business expense that needs to be passed on to consumers. That means higher prices or reduced services," he said.

"Currently those pharmacies paying payroll taxes have to recoup that directly or indirectly from their patients. So if we found a way to give payroll tax exemptions, that would then flow through with savings to patients."

Mr Topp agreed with the doctor lobby groups that imposing the payroll tax on GP clinics was "not fair".

"It does seem a bit illogical that the federal government can provide billions in subsidies to encourage bulk billing, and at the same time have state and territories then tax doctors retrospectively ensuring that not only will bulk billing decrease, but that out-of-pocket fees will increase," he said.

"This is not fair to the doctors, and more importantly it is not fair to patients."

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The chief minister has doubled down on his decision to only exempt general practice clinics that bulk-bill 65 per cent of patients.

"Lobby groups who seek to minimise tax will make all sorts of wild accusations," Mr Barr said.

"This debate has been full of that, and has been based on a fundamental misunderstanding about how the tax is applied, and how it is collected. But it has also been based on, frankly, a lack of ambition in relation to bulk billing."

Mr Barr has maintained the tax would only apply to a small number of practices.

The government has also agreed the tax would not be applied retroactively.