Over 1000 large companies didn’t pay tax in Australia last year

An ATO report released today revealed almost one-third of large companies who lodged tax returns in Australia last financial year did not pay tax. 

The Australian Tax Office’s tenth corporate tax transparency report says of the 3,985 entities that lodged – 1,253 had a tax bill of zero dollars. 

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There are legitimate reasons a company might not pay income tax like incurring an accounting or tax loss or using offsets.
 
The tax office says they’re paying close attention to ensure no one’s “trying to game the system,” with offshore tax havens being a key focus. 

The report is yet to be made publicly available. ATO data shared with the ABC shows the taxable income of all those involved in the report totalled $381 billion dollars.

The office collected $97.9 billion from companies that did pay.

Tax payable was dominated by the mining, energy and water sector, which made up $54.7 billion. This was followed by the wholesale, retail and services sector which made up $19.1 billion. 

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