The Australian Taxation Office has released details of how much the biggest 1500 public and international companies paid in tax during the 2013-14 financial year.
The ATO says the report will boost the community’s confidence in the fairness and equity of the taxation system.
Read more: Companies are “scrambling” to boost tax transparency amid global crackdown
There are many reasons why a company might not pay any tax in a particular year.
For example, Qantas reported an income of $14.9 billion during the 2013-14 financial year and did not pay tax, but the airline made a loss of $2.84 billion.
The ATO examined 1539 corporate entities and found 38% of them did not pay tax in Australia in 2014.
Of those 579 companies, 22% incurred a loss during 2014. Meanwhile, 8% utilised prior year losses and 7% used franking credits and offsets to reduce their tax bill.
The Australian Industry group’s head of policy, Dr Peter Burn, told ABC Radio this morning there is a risk the information released by the ATO could be “misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused”.
“Tax is not a simple thing,” Burn said.
“For clearly good reasons, and perfectly legal reasons under the law, you’re allowed to offset prior year losses. You can’t claim them in the year they’re incurred, but you can reserve them for later deduction. The more you get into it the more complex these things become.”
Burn also pointed out that loses might not be the only reason why a company might not be paying tax in Australia.
“It might be that a company has a large degree of foreign source income,” he said.
“Generally what happens when you have foreign source income is you pay tax in the country that it’s earned in… but you don’t have to pay it twice when you bring that money back through.”
Here are some of the companies named in the ATO’s corporate tax transparency data:
Adidas Australia Pty Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $233 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: $14.45 million
Tax paid: $4.33 million
Apple Pty Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $6.15 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $247 million
Tax paid: $74.1 million
Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $30.41 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $8.04 billion
Tax paid: $1.96 billion
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Total income during 2013-14: $43.15 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $9.88 billion
Tax paid: $2.87 billion
Costco Wholesale Australia Pty Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $889 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Crown Resorts Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $3.21 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $299 million
Tax paid: $88.7 million
David Jones Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $2 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Google Australia Pty Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $357 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: $90.89 million
Tax paid: $9.2 million
Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $1.18 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $232 million
Tax paid: $64.49 million
IKEA Pty Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $766 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: $46.76 million
Tax paid: $14 million
JB Hi-Fi Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $3.28 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $180 million
Tax paid: $54 million
Lend Lease Corporation Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $7.68 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Metcash Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $13.18 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $261 million
Tax paid: $71 million
Microsoft Pty Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $567 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: $103 million
Tax paid: $31 million
Myer Holdings Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $2.78 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $146 million
Tax paid: $37 million
National Australia Bank Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $42.63 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $11.26 billion
Tax paid: $2.26 billion
Qantas Airways Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $14.9 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Samsung Electronics Australia Pty Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $2.75 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $45.97 million
Tax paid: $13.79 million
SEEK Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $448 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: $159 million
Tax paid: $32.49 million
Stockland Corporation Ltd
Total income during 2013-14: $1.28 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Virgin Australia Holdings Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $4.3 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Wesfarmers Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $67.45 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $3.77 billion
Tax paid: $1.09 billion
Westpac Banking Corporation
Total income during 2013-14: $39.17 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $9.01 billion
Tax paid: $2.42 billion
William Hill Australia Holdings Pty Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $180 million
Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A
Tax paid: N/A
Woolworths Limited
Total income during 2013-14: $49.67 billion
Taxable income during 2013-14: $3.16 billion
Tax paid: $910 million
Broede Carmody is a former senior SmartCompany reporter. Before this, he was a co-editor of RMIT University’s student magazine Catalyst.
Comments