Medical professionals dominate the list of Australia’s top-earning occupations, with the nation’s top taxpayers clustered in New South Wales’ most exclusive suburbs, new Australian Taxation Office (ATO) data reveals.
The ATO revealed a telling data snapshot from the 2010-2021 financial year on Thursday, indicating which individuals and company types faced the largest tax liabilities as the COVID-19 pandemic first set in.
Surgeons topped the list of taxpaying occupations, with more than 4,000 individuals reporting an average taxable income of $457,281.
Anaesthetists came next, boasting average taxable incomes of $426,894 across nearly 3,500 individuals.
Medical and mental health professionals account for five of the top ten occupations in terms of taxable income, the 2020-2021 data shows.
On the business side, chief executive officers and managing directors ranked ninth in terms of average taxable income.
However, individuals in those categories far outnumbered any other profession in the top ten, with 224,015 individuals claiming CEO or managing director status.
The figures broadly mirror the 2015-2016 snapshot, where surgeons, anaesthetists, and internal medicine specialists took out the top three positions.
Few surprises emerge from the list of top-earning postcodes, either.
Sydney’s harbourside Double Bay ranked first, with its 3,352 taxpayers reporting an average taxable income of nearly $270,000.
There is a casual $36,000 gap between those earnings and those of the second-ranked postcode, 2030, which covers the nearby suburbs of Dover Heights, HMAS Watson, Rose Bay North, Vaucluse, and Watsons Bay.
Individuals there reported an average taxable income of $230,597.
Beyond individual tax data, the snapshot also provides insight into how small businesses fit into the broader corporate taxation system.
Small and medium-sized enterprises, defined as anything from loss-making ventures to entities reporting $100 million in taxable business income, comprised 99.7% of all entities.
But net tax figures practically invert the ranking.
Although microbusinesses comprised three-quarters of all taxpaying entities, they paid just 10.5% of corporate tax in 2020-2021, compared to 60.9% for Australia’s very large companies.
Notably, the data also hints at how businesses cut back on rental costs or ceased physical operations once pandemic restrictions kicked in.
Average annual rent expenses were $130,087 in 2019-2020, compared to $123,176 in 2020-2021.
You can delve through the data here.
Senior Business Journalist
Focused on the small business sector, David’s work covers the political, regulatory, and economic issues facing Australian entrepreneurs. Prior to joining SmartCompany, he was a reporter for Business Insider Australia. You can follow him on LinkedIn.
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