Why Victoria is the ‘hardest’ state in Australia to run a business

Victoria is the hardest state in Australia to business, according to new national research.

And it will continue to be unless changes are made, says the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The research found Victoria to be the highest-taxing state with the biggest public sector and most red tape when it came to running a business.

More than half the national businesses polled by Nous Group said Victoria was the hardest state to do business in.

The report was commissioned by the VCCI.

VCCI chief Paul Guerra said that, for example, 43 different permits and licences were required to set up and run a hospitality business in Victoria.

“It’s hard to do, it’s time-consuming to do,” he told Neil Mitchell.

Mr Guerra called for payroll tax to be scrapped.

“That is the biggest impost, at the moment,” he said.

“If you ask any business owner that employs people, they’ll say payroll tax is a tax on jobs.

“Ideally, let’s look at this as an opportunity between state and federal governments to actually get rid of payroll tax once and for all.”

Neil Mitchell said action was clearly needed.

“We’ve got to fix this,” he said.

But it wasn’t all bad news in the report.

There were several aspects where Victoria scored highly.

Press PLAY below to hear more about it

Picture: Getty iStock