Reference material

This reference material is designed to help you get the most out of our statistics.

Find out about:

• Definitions and calculations
• Tax return forms and other relevant publications
• Data cut-off dates and abbreviations
• How we calculate our industry benchmarks

Definitions and calculations

Find out about:

• Entity size
• Calculating net tax
• Estimating tax on net capital gains
• Estimating business net tax
• Calculating net GST

Entity size

For the purposes of our yearly Taxation statistics, an Entity is an individual, a company, a fund, a self-managed fund, a partnership or a trust.

An entity’s size is determined by referring to Table 21 as follows.

Table 21: Determine entity size

Entity size	Total business income
Loss	less than $0
Nil	equal to $0
Micro	$1 to less than $2 million
Small	$2 million to less than $10 million
Medium	$10 million to less than $100 million
Large	$100 million to less than $250 million
Very large	$250 million or more

Total business income is the amount:

• an individual showed under item P8 Business income and expenses at the total business income label of the 2016 individual tax return
• a company showed in the information statement under the income item at the total income label S of the 2016 company tax return
• a fund showed at item 10 under the income item at the total assessable income label V of the 2016 fund income tax return
• a self-managed super fund showed at item 11 under the income item at the total assessable income label V of the 2016 SMSF annual return
• a partnership or trust showed at item 5 under the income item at the total business income label of the 2016 partnership or trust tax return.

Calculating net tax

Throughout these taxation statistics, 'net tax' is essentially the amount of tax owed for the income year, before refundable credits are taken into consideration. It does not generally equate to the amount of tax payable or refundable as shown on a notice of assessment.

Items in brackets below refer to tax return labels.

A taxable entity is one where net tax is more than $0, whereas non-taxable entities are those with net tax less than or equal to $0.

Individual net tax

Individual net tax is calculated as:

	Total income or loss
less	Total deductions
less	Tax losses of earlier income years
gives	Taxable income or loss
apply	Individual marginal tax rates
gives	Tax on taxable income
add	Extra income tax
subtract	Total non-refundable tax offsets
add	Medicare levy
add	Medicare levy surcharge
add	Temporary budget repair levy
subtract	Remaining foreign income tax offset
gives	Net tax

Notes:Extra income tax: an example of this is the amount added to tax on taxable income when a primary producer’s average income exceeds taxable income in a particular year.Remaining foreign income tax offset: this is a non-refundable tax offset so can only be applied to reduce any liability to nil (that is, cannot result in a refund).

Company net tax

Company net tax is calculated as:

	Total income (item 6S)
less	Total expenses (item 6Q)
gives	Total profit or loss (item 6T)
add or subtract	Reconciliation items (item 7)
gives	Taxable income (calculation statement – item A)
apply	Relevant company tax rate
add	R&D recoupment tax (calculation statement – item M)
gives	Gross tax (calculation statement – item B)
subtract	Non-refundable tax offsets and Franking deficit tax offset
	(calculation statement – items C, D and F)
gives	Net tax

Super fund net tax

Super fund net tax (for APRA and SMSFs respectively) is calculated as:

	Total assessable income (item 10V/11V)
less	Total deductions (item 11N/12N)
gives	Taxable income or loss (item 11O/12O)
apply	Fund type specific tax rate
add	Tax on no-TFN quoted contributions (item 12J/13J)
gives	Gross tax (item 12B/13B)
subtract	Non-refundable non-carry forward tax offsets (item 12C/13C)
gives	Net tax

Estimating tax on net capital gains

For taxation statistics purposes, the tax on net capital gains is an estimate of the tax required to be paid, based on using an average tax rate approach.

Tax on net capital gains is estimated as:

	Net tax
divided by	Taxable income
gives	Average tax rate
multiplied by	Net capital gain
gives	Estimated tax on net capital gains

Estimating business net tax

For taxation statistics purposes, business net tax is an estimate of the amount of net tax attributable to net business income. Business net tax is only calculated for taxable individuals with net business income and taxable income.

Business net tax is estimated as:

	Net income or loss from business (sum of items 15B and 15C)
divided by	Taxable income (label $ under the Losses section)
gives	Proportion of taxable income sourced from net business income
multiplied by	Net tax
gives	Estimated business net tax

Note: Where the proportion calculated above is greater than 1, it is changed to 1.

Calculating net GST

Net GST is calculated as:

	Gross GST payable
add	Deferred GST payments on imports
less	Input tax credits
gives	Net GST

Note: The net amount of GST on the activity statement can also be affected by increasing and decreasing adjustments.

Tax return forms and other relevant publications

All the tax return forms, associated instructions and guides and other publications referred to in this Taxation statistics report are listed here.

Return forms and schedules

• Tax return for individuals 2016
• Tax return for individuals (supplementary section) 2016
• Company tax return 2016
• Fund income tax return 2016
• Self-managed superannuation fund annual return 2016
• Partnership tax return 2016
• Trust tax return 2016
• Capital gains tax schedule 2016
• International dealings schedule 2016
• Fringe benefits tax return 2017 

Instructions and other guides

• Individual tax return instructions 2016
• Rental properties 2016
• Business and professional items 2016
• Company tax return instructions 2016
• Fund income tax return instructions 2016
• Self-managed superannuation fund annual return instructions 2016
• Partnership tax return instructions 2016
• Trust tax return instructions 2016
• Guide to capital gains tax 2016
• Completing your 2017 fringe benefits tax return

Activity statements and GST returns

• Annual GST return
• Super member contributions statement
• Quarterly business activity statement
• Instalment activity statement
• GST
• Business activity statements (BAS)
• Pay as you go (PAYG) instalments
• When to pay and report on activity statements

Other publications

• Business industry code tool
• Salary and wage occupation codes 2016

Data cut-off dates and abbreviations

Data cut-off dates

The data in our tables includes data processed up to 31 October of the following year. For example, data for the 2015–16 income year includes data processed up to 31 October 2017.

The statistics are sourced from annual tax returns (including amended returns), associated schedules (such as the capital gains tax schedule) and activity statements that were processed up to 31 October 2017.

Statistics in the detailed tables have been updated for the 2013–14 to 2015–16 income years and 2014–15 to 2016–17 financial and FBT years, to include returns processed up to 31 October 2017. These statistics are not necessarily complete and will continue to change as more tax returns and schedules are lodged and processed.

Data for the 2012–13 and earlier income years and 2013–14 and earlier financial and FBT years, have not been updated in this edition.

Abbreviations

Table 22: Abbreviations used in Taxation statistics

Abbreviation	Full title
APRA	Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
ATO	Australian Taxation Office
CGT	Capital gains tax
FBT	Fringe benefits tax
GST	Goods and services tax
LCT	Luxury car tax
MCS	Member contributions statement
PRRT	Petroleum resource rent tax
SMSF	Self-managed super fund
WET	Wine equalisation tax

Table 23: Abbreviations used within tables

Abbreviation	Description
no.	number
$m	dollars are shown in millions
na	not applicable or not available
<1	rounded to zero but not zero