Miners Dominate Company Tax List as Others Pay Zero

Mining companies are highlighting their financial contributions to the Australian public coffers, as they once again lead the corporate tax rankings.

In the fiscal year 2022/23, Corporate Australia paid nearly $100 billion (US$65.7 billion) in income tax, marking a significant increase of almost 17 percent from the previous year, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in its 10th annual Corporate Tax Transparency report.

Despite the substantial tax revenues, with the mining sector alone contributing $43 billion (US$28.2 billion), approximately a third of businesses managed to avoid paying any tax.

Out of 3985 businesses, 1253 entities did not have a tax bill. However, this figure represented a five percent decrease since the inaugural transparency report in 2013/14.

Among the 31 percent of businesses that did not pay tax, 14 percent reported an accounting loss, seven percent incurred a tax loss, two percent utilized offsets, and eight percent carried over tax losses from the previous year.

According to ATO Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Saint, there are valid reasons why a company may not pay income tax.

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“The Australian community can be assured we pay close attention to those who pay no income tax to ensure that they are not trying to game the system,’ she said.

She hailed the total income tax figure of $97.9 billion (US$64.3 billion) as a “great result” and said tax paid in 2022/23 was the highest since corporate tax transparency reporting started.

Most sectors of the economy paid more tax than the previous year and the oil and gas sector contributed $11.6 billion (US$7.6 billion), driven by a combination of commodity prices, the project production life cycle and ATO intervention.

The Minerals Council of Australia noted that the mining sector paid $43.1 billion (US$28.3 billion) in company tax and $31.5 billion (US$20.7 billion) in royalties, highlighting the role mining plays in the economy.

“This means reliable funding for the NDIS, schools, roads, aged care, hospitals, and Australia’s national security, including the AUKUS submarine program,” said chief executive Tania Constable.

For the second year in a row, the “mining, energy and water” segment paid more tax than all other sectors combined, contributing 55.9 percent ($54.7 billion (US$35.9 billion)) of the total, an increase of $12.5 billion (US$8.1 billion) on the previous year.

Mining companies make up more than half of the nation’s top 20 largest taxpayers, with Rio Tinto, BHP, and Glencore taking the top three spots.

Woodside was the fifth-largest taxpayer in the country, paying more than $4 billion (US$2.6 billion) in combined income tax and petroleum resource rent tax.

Woodside chief executive Meg O’Neill said the company was “enormously proud” to be a robust contributor to Australia’s wealth and prosperity.

It comes after Wesfarmers chair Michael Chaney said companies like his were essential to the nation’s economic prosperity amid cost-of-living pressures, adding “almost all the profits ended up outside the company.”

“For some external parties, profit seems to be a dirty word, but it is important to understand how profitable businesses are essential to our economy and future prosperity,” Chaney told the Wesfarmers annual meeting on Oct. 31.

The federal government said the tax data was evidence of its efforts to bolster ATO compliance operations, including $200 million (US$131.3 million) in increased funding for the Tax Avoidance Taskforce.

Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones said the increase in tax collected vindicated the work of the government and ATO to claw back money owed by some of Australia’s biggest companies.

“The ATO’s work is crucial in the fight to hold big companies to account. Our government will always ensure it has the resources necessary to retrieve what is owed so we can fund services the community needs,” he said.

Jones said the Tax Avoidance Taskforce had led a crackdown on tax dodging by multinational enterprises, large Australian public and private groups, and wealthy individuals.

Since the taskforce was formed in 2016, it had helped secure more than $33.2 billion (US$21.8 billion) in additional tax revenue from multinational enterprises, large public, and private businesses.