Late last week, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) dumped data on corporate tax paid in the 2015-16 year, which revealed that more than 700 large companies paid absolutely nothing, despite earning a combined income of $500 billion. ABC News explains the dataset:
There are some things we need to tell you about the dataset:
- This information contains the total income, taxable income and tax payable of more then 2,043 entities
- They include 1,693 Australian public entities and foreign-owned entities — including privately owned foreign companies — with a total income of $100 million or more
- They also include 350 Australian-owned private entities with a total income of $200 million or more
- The information is from Australian tax returns for the 2015-16 financial year
- This from the ATO: “As the legislation does not allow for the reporting of an amount of zero or less, these fields are left blank”…
There were 732 companies who paid no tax in Australia in the 2015-16 financial year. Collectively, their income was more than $500 billion.
Michael West explains some of the findings in detail:
Once again, about a third of the biggest companies in the land pay no tax…
The usual culprits are at play. Zero tax on $2.9 billion in revenue from Rupert Murdoch’s News Australia Holdings, not a zack from Wall Street’s cuff-linked freebooters Goldman Sachs for the third year on the trot, same deal for brewing giant SAB Miller and a slew of other foreign multinationals.
Two Glencore companies managed to exterminate all profit and all tax on $22 billion in income. How do you not pay tax with almost $2 billion a month coming in the door?
Yet again, nothing from sugar giant Wilmar or JP Morgan, not a penny from American Express for nine years…
grog companies are chronic tax avoiders, many resources companies too, particularly the oil majors. Shell Energy paid zero on $4.2 billion in revenue, Chevron nothing on $2.1 billion, Viva Energy (which bought the petrol stations from Shell) zero on $16.8 billion and ExxonMobil not a cent on $6.7 billion…
Australia’s biggest bookie William Hill paid nothing, as did the airlines Qantas, Virgin, Tiger, Qatar Airways and Etihad… Adani’s three entities racked up $722 million and paid no tax…
Despite the enormous revenue gap, Ikea’s profit was also virtually identical to Nick Scali’s at $39 million – clear evidence that Ikea, just like most multinationals fabricates reasons to bulk up its costs in this country in order to eliminate profit, ripping it offshore…
Instead of the Turnbull Government seeking to cut Australia’s headline corporate tax rate to 25% from 30%, how about it instead focus on ensuring that multinational companies pay their fair share of tax, just like ordinary workers are required to do?
