Rules shared with Perth. TPB registration, the client information requirements and WA payroll tax work the same in Bunbury as in the capital; our Perth accountants page sets them out with sources. This section is about what Bunbury practices see that others don't.
A centre for four councils. Greater Bunbury is planned as one region across the City of Bunbury and the shires of Harvey, Dardanup and Capel, and in June 2025 those four councils held 6,927 businesses between them, 2,936 in the city itself. The city had 158 businesses employing 20 or more people, more than the 144 in the much larger City of Mandurah, and its count of businesses turning over $2 million or more rose from 311 in 2021 to 403 in 2025. Health care and social assistance grew fastest, from 242 businesses to 310. For a practice website, that means more clients with staff, payroll and growth questions than the city's 32,987 residents would suggest, and a services list that should reach past individual returns.
The industrial sites. The Kemerton Strategic Industrial Area sits about 17 km north-east of the city in the Shire of Harvey. On 12 February 2026 Albemarle said it would place its last operating lithium hydroxide train at Kemerton into care and maintenance, with about 250 jobs linked to running the refinery to go, following about 300 redundancies announced in August 2024. The ATO says a genuine redundancy payment is tax-free up to a limit based on years of service, with amounts above that taxed as an employment termination payment. A practice that has seen many of these returns can say so; it's a search people in the South West are making. The suppliers and contractors around these sites are a separate audience: they need advice on contracts ending or slowing, and the site should talk to them as businesses.
Renters and landlords. At the 2021 Census, 34.1% of occupied homes in the City of Bunbury were rented, against 27.3% across WA, and 418 of the city's businesses were in rental, hiring and real estate services in 2025, about one in seven. That's a lot of rental schedules and investment property questions. A clear page for property investors, with a list of what to bring and a link to the ATO's residential rental property guidance, saves your staff repeat calls in July.
Working with us. We're an Adelaide team and work with South West practices by phone and email; we don't travel to Bunbury. We've built a website for an accounting firm, and our current clients are in SA, NSW, VIC and QLD, not WA. Bunbury keeps Perth time, 1.5 hours behind Adelaide, or 2.5 during South Australian daylight saving. For other kinds of Bunbury business, see our Bunbury web design page.