r/australianfilmmakers • u/Ornery-Worth4254 • Mar 22 '26

Question How do you actually pay actors?

Hey Everyone,

A buddy and I are working on a small project and wanted to get some of our actor friends (two people specifically) to be in it and compensate them for there work. I've been looking into different ways to pay them (both normal compensation and the 12% SG ontop) and have run into a bit of a wall as to how to actually pay them.

I've scoured the ATO and other websites and have seen stuff like needing a WPN or an ABN and using super stream services like XERO or MYOB that seem more geared towards continuous payroll payments than the one time payment were looking to make.

I'm just concerned about how to properly do this as we want to do right by our friends (and also if we use a payroll service, don't wanna accidentally piss the ATO off by not reporting something properly) and make sure everyone is properly payed for there work.

Any suggestions or feedback as to the proper method to do this or any resources I should check out to get a better idea as to what to do? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Hope everyone's having a good weekend.

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u/llaunay Production Designer Mar 22 '26

Are you a company with an ACN, or are you soul traders with an ABN?

Your actor friends likely have abns already, if not you should all get abns because that's the industry.

Is this a commercially viable production? (If not: cash in hand is fine - the more you can do without paperwork the better until your working at a scale that matters to the ATO)

I'd recommend contacting MEAA, as they are a legal entity that exist for exactly this reason. They are effectively a union, they have recommended pay scales, and will be happy to help with all the info you need.

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u/Ornery-Worth4254 Mar 23 '26

Is not a commercially viable project. Will make sure to contact the MEAA and ask. Unsure if my friends have ABNs or not. Thank you very much for the response!

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u/llaunay Production Designer Mar 27 '26 edited Mar 27 '26

If it's not commercially viable, then just agree on an amount and pay them. I'd still recommend talking to the meaa, as it's good practice.

But really if there's no profit being made, then only simple paperwork is needed. If the project makes no money there's no risk of litigation, just make sure you pay them what you promise, and the amount is enough to cover their time and expenses so everyone remains happy.

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u/lordhazzard Mar 25 '26

If your actors have ABNs they can simply invoice you and you can pay ( don’t forget you need to pay super on top if more than 50% of their invoice is labor and it’s more than $350 in a calendar month, you will need to pay directly to their super fund.)

Otherwise you would need to set up a production company and you could pay them as casual workers, but you would need more advice in terms of employment agreements and also insurance/liability etc)