600 of Australia's Largest Companies Paid No Tax Last Year - Now You Can See Who They Are

Diji1 on 17/12/2015 - 14:59

The ATO has published a list containing 1500 of the largest entities in Australia and the amount of tax/taxable income they paid for 2013-2014.

As the headline notes 600 paid no tax at all.

Other entities such as Apple claimed $6.1B in revenue but paid $74M tax on that.

I must say this seems childish and stupid but then again maybe not if these entities are influencing the Australian gummints to not enact legislation to force them to pay tax. If the gummints was actually going to do something about these entities and their legal tax minimisation it would pass laws and so they had to, not attempt to publically shame them into "being reasonable and paying your fair share of the tax burden".

I guess we can only speculate as to why this is but would it surprise anyone if passing legislation like this meant a whole lot of other people couldn't legally minimise tax (whilst avoiding the public naming and shaming).

More info: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-17/almost-600-companies-d…

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Comments

  • battler on 17/12/2015 - 15:04
    -1

    The list: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-17/tax-transparency-repor…

    last column "Tax payable as percentage of total income (%)" is pretty stupid for comparison purposes.
    would be better with 'as % of taxable income'

    • ozhunter on 17/12/2015 - 15:15

      The data shows technology giant Apple had total income of about $6.1 billion, but only $247 million of that was taxable income.

      Some companies' taxable income is so low to their revenue.

    • fruit on 17/12/2015 - 15:52

      would be better with 'as % of taxable income

      They are paying the correct tax rate on their taxable income, that's what tax avoid/evasion is.
      Not paying that will easily get you in a lot of hurt.

  • burningrage on 17/12/2015 - 15:52
    -2

    Companies don't pay tax for variety of legitimate reason. One of them is due to Carry Over Tax Loss and the other one is offsets (deductions).

    This tax arrangement can also apply to those may have own business, investment property, ABN contractors etc so I don't know why then ATO didn't also publish individuals as well who uses these arrangement.

    This article doesn't distinguish and paint these companies with the same brush as if it implies they dodged taxes.

    I don't agree with this sort of name and shaming.

  • PartyNextDoor on 17/12/2015 - 16:48

    You can use the link below to search for companies and see their taxable income vs tax payed

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-intera…

  • welfoj on 18/12/2015 - 18:25

    so 600 large companies didn't profit last year, if I bought 100,000 ipads and sold them for no profit should I be taxed?
    The ATO needs to be smarter about detecting and policing offshoring of profits rather than whinging to the public about companies that paid no tax. If they are dodging tax investigate it and prosecute them!

    • ozhunter on 18/12/2015 - 19:20

      if I bought 100,000 ipads and sold them for no profit should I be taxed?

      Well you'd already have paid the Apple tax :D

      The ATO said no tax paid did not necessarily mean companies had been engaged in tax avoidance.

      Likely they are minimising their tax legally, it's just strange how little they pay to the income they receive. Not enough information from the article. My guess would be that they are paying tax on their earnings, just not in Australia.

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