Overview
Each year, we are required by law to publish certain tax information. For the 2022-23 income year and onwards, this includes:
- any corporate tax entity that has total income equal to or exceeding $100 million
- entities that have petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) payable.
For income years up to 2021-22 the following thresholds apply:
- Australian public and foreign-owned corporate tax entities with total income of $100 million or more
- Australian-owned resident private companies with total income of $200 million or more
- entities that have petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) payable.
Entities include all taxpayers treated as corporations for tax purposes, for example:
- companies
- public trading trusts
- corporate limited partnerships.
We do this through the Report of entity tax information. The data in each report is taken directly from tax returns.
You can access the Report of entity tax information at data.gov.auExternal Link.
How we produce the report
The Report of entity tax information includes information from returns and amendments (requested by the relevant entity), that are processed by 1 September of the year following the tax year being reported. If an entity's relevant labels show an amount of zero or less, we leave that field blank.
In accordance with the law, we cannot include any details of amended assessments issued by us following audits or settlements.
If an entity lodges after 1 September, their information will be published the following year.
We write to affected corporations each year to advise them about the forthcoming report. This allows them time to advise us if the information is not correct.
Due to tax law confidentiality provisions in the Taxation Administration Act 1953, we can't give information beyond what's published in the Report of entity tax information.
Entities and organisations named in the report can choose to provide further information under the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code.
Data sources
We use the following tax return and PRRT return labels for the Report of entity tax information.
- Total income – the amount shown at income label 6S of the company tax return:
- Most income received when carrying on a business is assessable for income tax purposes – the total amount is referred to as assessable income or total income
- The amount to be written at income label 6S is an accounting system amount and generally corresponds to the relevant amount in the entity's financial statements for the income year.
- Taxable income – the amount shown at label 7T (taxable/net income or loss) of the company tax return:
- Taxable income is calculated as the difference between an organisation's assessable income and deductions.
- As the legislation does not allow for the reporting of an amount of zero or less, if the amount is a loss, we will leave taxable income blank in the report.
- Tax payable – the amount shown at label T5 of the company tax return:
- This is determined by multiplying the taxable income by the 30% corporate tax rate and then deducting tax offsets and credits, such as the research and development (R&D) incentive and franking credits.
- Some corporate tax entities will have an amount of taxable income but no income tax payable due to these offsets and credits – this is a function of the tax law and the way tax payable is calculated under the law.
- PRRT payable – the amount shown at label 25I of the PRRT return.
You can read more about the following instructions:
Factors affecting the data
The Report of entity tax information is at the corporate tax entity level (for income tax purposes). These entities may be part of larger economic groups, and some economic groups contain 2 or more tax groups and other non-consolidated entities.
We include more detailed analysis of the population when the report is published each year.
Legal forms and structure
Entities may choose to use different legal forms or structures to meet their business needs. This means that economically similar activities may end up being taxed differently, depending on the legal structure of the entity.
Entities listed in the Report of entity tax information may be part of a large economic group; one entity in the group may pay tax while others in the group may show nil tax payable.
Many private companies are associated with private groups that contain flow-through entities such as trusts and partnerships and the group's income may be taxed at the beneficiary or individual level, rather than at the corporate level. This means figures for private companies cannot easily be compared with those for public companies.
Commercial arrangements between related parties in a private group may result in income and profits effectively being transferred from a corporate entity to another related non-corporate entity.
For example, a private company may operate a business from premises owned by a related trust that charges the private company for use of those premises. The private company derives income from the operation of its business from the premises, but its profit and taxable income is reduced by the amount paid to the trust for use of the premises, reducing the amount of tax payable by the company. The income received from the private company for use of the premises forms part of the calculation of the trust's net income that is distributed to trust beneficiaries who, in turn, pay tax on their distribution from the trust.
We cannot publish the tax affairs of:
- associated entities unless they also meet the requirements under the law
- individuals associated with private companies.
Learn more about the Private group approach.
Economic factors affecting profit or loss
Several factors can affect the economic performance of sectors of the economy at various points in the economic cycle. For example, these could be commodity prices, policy changes and impacts of financial or health crises (such as COVID-19).
Some sectors of the economy can face challenging times whilst corporations in other sectors will see increases in revenue and profit. These broader economic factors will change the tax profile of a corporation and impact on the amount of tax paid.
Corporate income tax is payable on profits, not gross income or revenue. There are genuine reasons why corporations may not pay income tax, for example, due to operating losses, deducting losses from prior years, or expensing projects in a start-up phase.
Reasons for variations
The figures in the Report of entity tax information in themselves do not indicate if an entity is paying a high or low rate of tax. The tax system provides for a range of deductions and offsets affecting final tax payable figures.
Measuring a company’s effective tax rate (how much tax they pay as a percentage of profits) requires more information than what's in the report. Also, comparing effective tax rates across single entities does not consider related-party transactions, the broader economic group or a number of other factors.
Variations can come from the use of tax losses. Tax losses can generally be carried forward and offset against taxable income in future income years. Losses carried forward are subject to integrity rules that restrict the use of those losses where there is a substantial change in company ownership (the continuity of ownership test) and the type of activity undertaken by the business (the same business test or the similar business test). Losses generated by one member of a tax consolidated group can generally be used against profits earned by other members of the same group.
Corporate tax entities listed in the report may be eligible to ‘carry back’ tax losses incurred in the 2019–20 to 2022–23 income years and offset it against the income tax liability for the 2018–19 or later years, generating a refundable tax offset in assessments for the 2020–21, 2021–22 and 2022–23 income years.
Further analysis on the reasons for tax losses can be found in each year's corporate tax transparency report.
Petroleum resource rent tax payable
PRRT is a profits-based tax that only taxes profits above a specified rate of return. A PRRT liability will be dependent on a range of factors, including commodity prices, foreign exchange rates and project development and operating costs.
The PRRT data in the Report of entity tax information is taken directly from PRRT returns.
Comparisons with other sources
The figures in the Report of entity tax information are not easily compared or reconciled with aggregated figures reported in our annual report, or figures from reports lodged with the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).
Figures in the Report of entity tax information cannot be taken as the final tax position of an entity. The tax payable amount may be amended by the entity – for example, if they identify an error in the return as originally lodged. We may issue an amended assessment as a consequence of compliance activity.
Accounting groups often include entities outside the Australian tax group – for example, some partially-owned subsidiaries as well as foreign subsidiaries. Stapled groups often include both sides of the staple in their accounting group, whereas only one side of the accounting group may be included in the transparency reporting.
In some cases, the tax group may include entities outside the Australian accounting group – in particular, where a group holds its Australian operations under multiple offshore companies, meaning there are multiple entry points into Australia.
This report contains data of large corporate entities that meet the corporate tax transparency threshold.