Religious and independent schools in Victoria, Australia are opposing a new policy that requires many local education providers to pay payroll tax to raise revenue. The proposed policy, by the Victorian Labor government in the 2023-2024 state budget, removes the payroll tax exemption for non-government schools with high tuition fees to help repay $31.5 billion debt caused by COVID-19 measures. Currently, only government schools pay payroll tax, and all religious and independent schools are exempt. However, under the new policy, non-government schools with an annual tuition fee of above $8,000 will have to pay payroll tax starting from July 1, 2024. The state government said this would ensure that only schools that genuinely need support would benefit from the exemption and would raise around $135 million in 2024-25 and $422.2 million over the forward estimates. On the other hand, religious schools and the Australian Association of Christian Schools urged Labor MPs to take action to scrap the proposal or significantly raise the tuition fee threshold for the payroll tax, fearing that students would bear the brunt of the reform. Meanwhile, the Opposition claimed that the new measure would expose those schools to even more taxes, including the COVID-19 levy and the mental health levy introduced in 2022, and vowed to reinstate the payroll tax exemption for high-fee private schools if elected in 2026.