The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has released its seventh annual report on corporate tax transparency.
This year’s tax transparency report covers 2,370 corporate entities, of which:
- 1,378 are foreign-owned companies with an income of $100 million or more
- 513 are Australian public entities with an income of $100 million or more
- 479 are Australian-owned resident private companies with an income of $200 million or more.
The companies in the report paid a combined total of $57.2 billion, or around 65% of all corporate income tax in 2019-20.
Since the first report in 2013-14, there has been growth in total income, taxable income, and income tax payable. In 2019-20, the growth in these amounts has been largely driven by the mining sector, which accounted for around 44% of tax payable.
While the report reflects the impact of the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (particularly on the wholesale, retail and services sector), it does not provide additional detail on recipients of JobKeeper or other stimulus payments.
The report also shows that the proportion of companies that have paid no income tax remains steady at 33% in 2019-20. This reflects a decline from 36% since the first report in 2013-14.
Oil and gas sector
The highly concentrated taxpayer base of the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) allows a high level of ATO scrutiny. 12 corporate entities paid $881 million in 2019-20, this is a slight decrease from the $1.06 billion paid by 11 corporate entities in 2018–19. The decline in PRRT is primarily due to a fall in oil prices.
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