Australian Tax Transparency

The Big
Rip Off

2.9%
Big companies paid
on everything they earned
22.8%
You paid on
a $70,000 wage

4,110 large corporations earned $3,300,000,000,000 in Australia and paid $95,700,000,000 in tax.
14.8 million working Australians collectively earned far less, and paid far more.

All data sourced from the ATO, ABS & Australian Treasury. Public government records.

How much did you pay? Enter your salary

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01
Section 01

Your beer is taxed more
than their gas exports

Australia sells enormous amounts of gas to other countries. There is a special tax meant to make sure Australians get a share of that money. Gas companies pay less of this tax than Australians pay in beer tax.

🍺
Beer tax
$2,700,000,000
vs
🔥
Gas company tax
$1,500,000,000
Tax on beer
$2,700,000,000
Gas company tax (PRRT)
$1,500,000,000
$70,000,000,000+
What gas companies earn selling Australian gas overseas each year
$1,500,000,000
What gas companies pay in their special resource tax. About 2 cents for every dollar they earn.
$17,100,000,000
What a 25% gas export tax could raise each year. This is an estimate.
02
Section 02

Workers carry the load

Big companies earn 3.4 times more than all Australian workers put together, but pay far less tax. Here is exactly how much less.

$1,020,000,000,000
Total wages and salaries earned by 14.8 million Australians
$311,600,000,000
Income tax those workers paid. About 30 cents in every dollar.
$3,279,000,000,000
Total money earned by 4,110 big companies
$95,700,000,000
Tax those companies paid. Just 2.9 cents in every dollar they earned.

How income shrinks before tax

Companies can reduce what they declare as income before the tax office calculates what they owe. Workers cannot do this anywhere near as much.

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What they actually paid, as a percentage of what they earned

This shows tax paid as a share of total money earned. Workers pay 5 to 10 times the rate that big companies do.

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03
Section 03

Every tax Australians pay

Income tax is just the start. Add the 10% tax on almost everything you buy, petrol tax, cigarette tax, beer tax, student debt repayments, Medicare, tax on your retirement savings, and payroll tax. Australians pay at every turn. Big companies often pay once, if at all.

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~$492,000,000,000
Total tax paid by individuals and households in 2023-24
$95,700,000,000
Total tax paid by all big companies. On $3,300,000,000,000 in earnings.
28%
Of big companies paid zero tax in 2023-24. That is 1 in 4.
04
Section 04

Who pays nothing

These are some of the biggest companies operating in Australia that paid little or no tax. Every number comes from the government's own public tax records. Ranked by how little tax they paid relative to what they earned.

All figures are for the 2023-24 financial year  ·  Revenue = total money earned in Australia  ·  Figures marked "estimated" are based on reported data and should be verified at data.gov.au before citing  ·  Source: ATO Corporate Tax Transparency

Company Revenue Tax paid Rate
1
🥩JBS Brazilian company and one of Australia's biggest meat processors Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data
$11,300,000,000 $0 0%
2
📡Optus Phone and internet company owned by Singtel of Singapore Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data
$9,200,000,000 $0 0%
3
🛢️Chevron American oil and gas company that sells Australian gas overseas Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit · costs and deductions eliminated the entire income 2023-24 · estimated (see note)
~$8,700,000,000 ~$0 ~0%
4
🔥Santos Australian gas company that mines and exports gas Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit despite billions in gas sales 2023-24 · estimated (see note)
~$7,200,000,000 ~$0 ~0%
5
✈️Virgin Australia Airline that uses old losses from its 2020 collapse to avoid tax Reported profit: $0 — Made a real profit but old carried-forward losses wiped out their taxable income 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data
$6,300,000,000 $0 0%
6
🔥INPEX Japanese company and one of Australia's biggest gas exporters Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit and has never paid the special gas company tax 2023-24 · estimated (see note)
~$5,400,000,000 ~$0 ~0%
7
⛏️Peabody American coal mining company that digs up Australian coal Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data
$3,200,000,000+ $0 0%
8
🛢️ExxonMobil American oil and gas company Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit · deductions eliminated any taxable income 2023-24 · estimated (see note)
~$2,100,000,000 ~$0 ~0%

Some companies use old losses or legal deductions to reduce their tax. That can be legitimate. But when the same pattern repeats across this many companies, this many years, on this much money, it raises real questions about whether the rules are working as they should.

05
Section 05

Zero in Australia.
Billions everywhere else.

The money doesn't disappear. It shows up in shareholder reports filed overseas. Here is what each company reported to their investors — the same year they reported nothing to the ATO.

Company Told the ATO Told shareholders Period
🥩 JBS $0 profit US$2.6B net profit (~AUD $4.0B) CY 2024
📡 Optus (Singtel) $0 profit S$2.47B underlying profit (~AUD $2.8B) FY Mar 2025
🛢️ Chevron $0 profit US$17.7B net profit (~AUD $26.9B) CY 2024
🔥 Santos $0 profit US$1.2B net profit (~AUD $1.8B) CY 2024
✈️ Virgin Australia $0 profit AUD $545M net profit FY Jun 2024
🔥 INPEX $0 profit ¥427B net profit (~AUD $4.2B) CY 2024
⛏️ Peabody $0 profit US$371M net profit (~AUD $564M) CY 2024
🛢️ ExxonMobil $0 profit US$33.7B net profit (~AUD $51.2B) CY 2024
Sources: ATO Corporate Tax Transparency 2023-24; company annual reports and investor disclosures (latest available full-year results). Global figures represent the consolidated parent company. AUD conversions use approximate 2024 average exchange rates. CY = calendar year. FY = financial year.

So where does the money actually go?

The profit exists. It just moves before it can be taxed here. These are the three main mechanisms.

💸 Debt loading ▼
The Australian subsidiary takes out a massive loan from a related company overseas. It then pays interest on that loan — often at inflated rates — back to the parent. The interest payment is a tax deduction in Australia, draining profit before the ATO sees it. Chevron's Australian arm was charged 9% interest on loans when the market rate was 1.2%. The ATO won a $340 million court case over it in 2017. The practice continues across the industry.
🏷️ Transfer pricing ▼
The Australian company pays the overseas parent for "services" — management fees, use of technology, brand royalties, shared infrastructure. The prices for these services are set by the same group that benefits from them. The payments reduce Australian taxable income and arrive as profit in a lower-tax jurisdiction. When an Australian phone customer pays Optus, some of that money leaves Australia as a "fee" to Singtel in Singapore before tax is calculated.
🕳️ Upfront deductions & loss carry-forward ▼
Gas companies can deduct the full cost of infrastructure — wells, pipelines, processing plants — against future income. A $40 billion LNG project creates $40 billion in deductions. Once the project is profitable, those deductions soak up every dollar of taxable income for years or decades. Virgin Australia uses a different version: losses from its 2020 bankruptcy are carried forward and used to cancel out current profits, year after year.
None of this is secret. It is all legal. The ATO knows. The Treasury knows. The companies file these details every year. The question is not whether it is happening. The question is why it is still allowed.
↑
For balance

Companies that do pay

Not every large company avoids tax. Here are the ten biggest corporate taxpayers in Australia in 2023-24, according to the ATO Corporate Tax Transparency Report. These companies collectively paid over $35 billion — about 37% of all large corporate tax.

Company Industry Tax paid 2023-24 Effective rate
🪨 BHP Mining $8,100,000,000 ~30%
⛏️ Rio Tinto Mining $6,800,000,000 ~29%
⛏️ Fortescue Mining $3,900,000,000 ~27%
🏦 Commonwealth Bank Banking ~$3,200,000,000 ~29%
🔥 Woodside Energy Oil & gas $3,000,000,000 ~27%
🏦 NAB Banking ~$2,700,000,000 ~29%
🏦 Westpac Banking ~$2,500,000,000 ~29%
🏦 ANZ Banking ~$2,300,000,000 ~28%
🛒 Wesfarmers Retail $1,500,000,000 ~30%
📈 Macquarie Group Finance ~$1,200,000,000 ~25%
Source: ATO Corporate Tax Transparency Report 2023-24; company tax transparency reports. Bank figures are approximate — the big four paid ~$10 billion combined. Figures marked ~ are estimates based on published reports. Woodside figure includes PRRT.
8 of the top 10 are either miners or banks.
Mining companies pay because they extract a finite physical resource owned by all Australians, and face royalties and a tax regime with less scope for profit-shifting. Banks pay because their income — interest on loans — is harder to move offshore. The sectors that most easily avoid tax are those with global supply chains, intellectual property, and related-party transactions.
06
Section 05

How Australia compares

Other countries tax gas and oil companies very differently. Norway takes 78 cents from every dollar of profit from oil companies. Australia collects less from gas companies than it does from beer tax.

Norway
Norway
$1,700,000,000,000
That's Trillion with a T
National savings fund
from oil and gas tax
Australia
Australia
$0
That's Zero with a Z
National savings fund
from gas exports
$17,100,000,000
What a 25% gas export tax could raise each year. Over 10 times what gas companies pay now (estimate).
78%
Tax Norway charges oil and gas companies on their profits. Australia charges gas companies roughly 2%.
$1,500,000,000
What Australia actually collected from gas companies last year. Less than beer tax.
This site exists because working Australians deserve to see how the system treats them compared to the corporations that extract our resources. All data is from public government sources. The numbers speak for themselves.