Yet another indicator that tax minimisation is out of control in Australia

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) as part of its transparency commitments released the latest corporate tax transparency report on 12 December 2019 covering 2,214 of the highest income companies trading in Australia in 2017-18.

These 2,214 companies reported annual incomes ranging from $66.87 billion down to $100.01 million.

Contained in the total number of companies were,1,791 with annual incomes over $100 million. Amongst this group were 1,197 foreign-owned entities.

The 32 per cent companies with tax payable in 2017-18 had tax liabilities ranging from $4.3 billion on an income of $42.37 billion down to $1,600 on an income of $125.36 million.

Additionally, 710 companies on the ATO list did not pay any tax that financial year.

ABC News, 12 December 2019:

The reasons why 710 companies did not pay any tax in 2017-18 included:

• 269 entities that reported a taxable income but prior-year losses were available to deduct against that profit, so no tax was payable
• 242 entities reported an accounting loss
• 146 entities reported an accounting profit but reconciliation items (such as tax deductions allowed at higher rates than accounting permits) resulted in a tax loss
• 53 entities reported a taxable income but were also entitled to offsets (such as the research and development tax incentive) at least equal to the tax otherwise payable

THE TOP 20 NON-TAXPAYING COMPANIES IN 2017-18 (going from highest annual income of $10.51 billion to lowest annual income of $3.03 billion) are:

TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION AUSTRALIA LTD, EXXONMOBIL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, FLORA GREEN PTY LTD, VIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED, TOLL HOLDINGS LIMITED, AUSTRALIA PACIFIC LNG PTY LTD, CHEVRON AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS PTY LTD, AMCOR LIMITED, PEABODY AUSTRALIA HOLDCO PTY LTD, HOPE DOWNS MARKETING COMPANY PTY LTD, QGC UPSTREAM HOLDINGS PTY LIMITED, FERROVIAL SERVICES AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, GRAINCORP LIMITED, SANTOS LIMITED, VODAFONE HUTCHISON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, BBP AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS PTY LTD, CBH GRAIN PTY LTD, ROY HILL HOLDINGS PTY LTD, PIONEER SAIL HOLDINGS PTY LTD, IBM A/NZ HOLDINGS PTY LIMITED.

* Image from.zippia.com