In Australia, 1,149 large companies paid no tax in 2024–25 — ABC News Australia
In Australia, 1,149 out of 4,299 large companies, or 27%, paid no tax for the 2024–25 financial year. This is stated in the tenth Australian Taxation Office (ATO) corporate tax transparency report, ABC News Australia reports.
A total of 3,150 companies paid tax, accounting for 73% of all entities covered by the report. The total amount of tax payable fell by $8.2 billion, or 8.6%, compared with the previous year, to $87.5 billion. The ATO attributed the mixed results among corporate taxpayers to slow economic growth, lower commodity prices and high interest rates.
Reasons for zero tax
The report notes that a zero tax outcome may result from a company’s accounting loss or from the use of tax offsets that reduced the amount payable to zero. Acting ATO Deputy Commissioner Michelle Sams stressed that having no tax payable does not mean a breach has occurred, but the agency carefully reviews such cases.
According to her, the share of large corporations with a zero result is the lowest since such data began being published in 2013–14. At that time, 36% of companies paid no tax.
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Oversight of multinational companies
The ATO reviews companies that use offshore financing and marketing hubs, while also paying greater attention to digital business models, cloud computing and data centres. The agency also examines royalty arrangements, including large payments to related entities overseas if they reduce profits taxable in Australia, as well as asset sales by foreign private equity funds.
The ATO’s Tax Avoidance Taskforce, established in 2016, has secured an additional $36 billion in revenue from multinational corporations and large public and private companies, Sams said. At the same time, about 140 countries, including Australia, had previously joined the OECD agreement on a 15% global minimum tax on multinational companies’ profits.
Largest payments from the extractive sector
The mining, energy and water supply sector remained the largest source of tax revenue. It paid $35.9 billion, or 41.1% of the total amount among the group of companies covered by the report. At the same time, this was $12.5 billion, or 25.8%, less than a year earlier.
Receipts from the petroleum resource rent tax rose by more than 26%, from $1.48 billion to $1.87 billion. Corporate tax paid by the oil and gas sector amounted to $10.6 billion, the second-highest figure since reporting began.
