ATO reveals how much tax Australia’s biggest public and international companies paid during 2013-14

The Australian Taxation Office has released details of how much the biggest 1500 public and international companies paid in tax during the 2013-14 financial year.

The ATO says the report will boost the community’s confidence in the fairness and equity of the taxation system.

Read more: Companies are “scrambling” to boost tax transparency amid global crackdown

There are many reasons why a company might not pay any tax in a particular year.

For example, Qantas reported an income of $14.9 billion during the 2013-14 financial year and did not pay tax, but the airline made a loss of $2.84 billion.

The ATO examined 1539 corporate entities and found 38% of them did not pay tax in Australia in 2014.

Of those 579 companies, 22% incurred a loss during 2014. Meanwhile, 8% utilised prior year losses and 7% used franking credits and offsets to reduce their tax bill.

The Australian Industry group’s head of policy, Dr Peter Burn, told ABC Radio this morning there is a risk the information released by the ATO could be “misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misused”.

“Tax is not a simple thing,” Burn said.

“For clearly good reasons, and perfectly legal reasons under the law, you’re allowed to offset prior year losses. You can’t claim them in the year they’re incurred, but you can reserve them for later deduction. The more you get into it the more complex these things become.”

Burn also pointed out that loses might not be the only reason why a company might not be paying tax in Australia.

“It might be that a company has a large degree of foreign source income,” he said.

“Generally what happens when you have foreign source income is you pay tax in the country that it’s earned in… but you don’t have to pay it twice when you bring that money back through.”

Here are some of the companies named in the ATO’s corporate tax transparency data:

Adidas Australia Pty Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $233 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: $14.45 million

Tax paid: $4.33 million

Apple Pty Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $6.15 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $247 million

Tax paid: $74.1 million

Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $30.41 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $8.04 billion

Tax paid: $1.96 billion

Commonwealth Bank of Australia

Total income during 2013-14: $43.15 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $9.88 billion

Tax paid: $2.87 billion

Costco Wholesale Australia Pty Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $889 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Crown Resorts Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $3.21 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $299 million

Tax paid: $88.7 million

David Jones Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $2 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Google Australia Pty Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $357 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: $90.89 million

Tax paid: $9.2 million

Harvey Norman Holdings Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $1.18 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $232 million

Tax paid: $64.49 million

IKEA Pty Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $766 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: $46.76 million

Tax paid: $14 million

JB Hi-Fi Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $3.28 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $180 million

Tax paid: $54 million

Lend Lease Corporation Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $7.68 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Metcash Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $13.18 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $261 million

Tax paid: $71 million

Microsoft Pty Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $567 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: $103 million

Tax paid: $31 million

Myer Holdings Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $2.78 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $146 million

Tax paid: $37 million

National Australia Bank Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $42.63 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $11.26 billion

Tax paid: $2.26 billion

Qantas Airways Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $14.9 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Samsung Electronics Australia Pty Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $2.75 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $45.97 million

Tax paid: $13.79 million

SEEK Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $448 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: $159 million

Tax paid: $32.49 million

Stockland Corporation Ltd

Total income during 2013-14: $1.28 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Virgin Australia Holdings Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $4.3 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Wesfarmers Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $67.45 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $3.77 billion

Tax paid: $1.09 billion

Westpac Banking Corporation

Total income during 2013-14: $39.17 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $9.01 billion

Tax paid: $2.42 billion

William Hill Australia Holdings Pty Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $180 million

Taxable income during 2013-14: N/A

Tax paid: N/A

Woolworths Limited

Total income during 2013-14: $49.67 billion

Taxable income during 2013-14: $3.16 billion

Tax paid: $910 million