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

$
Scroll
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.

Click any bar to explore

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.

Click any bar to explore

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.

Click any bar to explore

~$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 income reported to the ATO  ·  All figures sourced directly from the ATO 2023-24 Report of Entity Tax Information  ·  Click any row to see the exact spreadsheet row reference for fact-checking

Company Revenue Tax paid Rate
1
🥩JBS Brazilian company and one of Australia's largest meat processors Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 2002
$19,713,426,978 $0 0%
2
🔥Ichthys LNG pays resource royalties · see detail INPEX Corporation's Australian LNG project entity — one of Australia's largest gas exports Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit and has never paid the special gas company tax 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 1857
$10,661,856,034 $0 0%
3
🔥Santos pays resource royalties · see detail ASX-listed Australian gas company that mines and exports gas Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit despite billions in gas sales 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 3250
$8,210,276,022 $0 0%
4
📡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 · Row 3374
$8,203,717,550 $0 0%
5
🛢️Chevron pays resource royalties · see detail American oil and gas company that sells Australian gas overseas Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit · costs and deductions eliminated all taxable income 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 867
$7,507,792,916 $0 0%
6
⚗️Tianqi Lithium pays state royalties · see detail Chinese joint venture mining lithium at Greenbushes WA — declared $4.5B taxable income, paid $0 tax Declared taxable income: $4,546,731,134 — Tax paid: $0 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 3709
$7,489,099,632 $0 0%
7
🏭Liberty Steel Steel and industrial company — part of the private GFG Alliance empire that owns Whyalla Steelworks Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 2205
$7,350,988,383 $0 0%
8
⚡EnergyAustralia Australia's third-largest energy retailer, owned by CLP Holdings of Hong Kong Reported profit: $0 — Reported no taxable profit to the ATO 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Row 1302
$7,046,314,325 $0 0%
9
✈️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 · Row 3899
$5,783,599,998 $0 0%
10
🛢️TotalEnergies pays resource royalties · see detail French oil and gas major operating in Australian offshore gas fields Reported profit: $0 — Declared no taxable profit · deductions eliminated all taxable income 2023-24 · confirmed ATO data · Rows 3751 + 3752
$3,755,311,318 $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.

Why is this 2023-24 data? What about 2024-25?
The ATO publishes corporate tax transparency data with a significant lag — typically releasing each financial year's data in October of the following year. The 2023-24 data (covering July 2023 to June 2024) was released in October 2025 and is the most recent available. The 2024-25 data will not be published until around October 2026. This site will be updated when that data is released. In the meantime, every figure on this page is sourced directly from the official ATO spreadsheet — nothing is estimated or calculated.
ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL 2024-25 DATA RELEASE
calculating…
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$2,600,000,000 net profit (~AUD $4,000,000,000) CY 2024
🔥 Ichthys LNG (INPEX) $0 profit ¥427,000,000,000 net profit INPEX Corp (~AUD $4,200,000,000) CY 2024
🔥 Santos $0 profit US$1,200,000,000 net profit (~AUD $1,800,000,000) CY 2024
📡 Optus (Singtel) $0 profit S$2,470,000,000 underlying profit Singtel (~AUD $2,800,000,000) FY Mar 2025
🛢️ Chevron $0 profit US$17,700,000,000 net profit (~AUD $26,900,000,000) CY 2024
⚗️ Tianqi Lithium $4,546,731,134 taxable income — $0 tax paid Joint venture: IGO Ltd (49% AU partner) reported separate results; Chinese parent had net loss in 2024 FY 2024
🏭 Liberty Steel (GFG) $0 profit Private company — GFG Alliance publishes no consolidated accounts. No public shareholder report. 2023-24
⚡ EnergyAustralia (CLP) $0 profit CLP Holdings ~HKD 7,400,000,000 net earnings (~AUD $1,400,000,000) CY 2024
✈️ Virgin Australia $0 profit AUD $545,000,000 net profit FY Jun 2024
🛢️ TotalEnergies $0 profit USD $15,800,000,000 adjusted net income TotalEnergies SE (~AUD $24,000,000,000) 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+ royalties (est. share of A$14,500,000,000 total govt payments) ~30%
⛏️ Rio Tinto Mining $6,800,000,000+ ~A$3,800,000,000 royalties (est. from A$10B total taxes+royalties) ~29%
⛏️ Fortescue Mining $3,900,000,000+ royalties (est. share of A$6,100,000,000 combined taxes+royalties) ~27%
🏦 Commonwealth Bank Banking ~$3,200,000,000 ~29%
🔥 Woodside Energy Oil & gas $3,000,000,000part of A$3,500,000,000 total Australian taxes+royalties ~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%
Sources: ATO Corporate Tax Transparency Report 2023-24; BHP Economic Contribution Report 2024 (A$14.5B total to Australian govts); Rio Tinto Taxes and Royalties Paid Report 2023 (A$10B total in Australia); Fortescue FY24 Annual Report (A$6.1B combined taxes+royalties); Woodside Tax Transparency 2023-24 (A$3.5B total). Bank figures approximate — big four paid ~$10B combined. Royalty figures are estimates derived from total government payment disclosures. Woodside income tax 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. On top of income tax, BHP, Rio and Fortescue collectively paid over $7 billion in state royalties in 2023-24 — money that flows directly to state governments for the right to extract publicly owned resources. 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.