Optus rings up no tax as miners and banks support the budget

Optus did not pay any corporate tax despite earning more than $8.2 billion in income from Australian customers, as new figures reveal that the federal budget increasingly depends on miners and banks.

The Australian Tax Office released its annual corporate tax report on Thursday that outlines the income and tax paid by the nation’s largest private and public companies. In 2023-24, more than 4000 firms paid $95.7 billion in tax on $3.3 trillion of income.

But Singapore Telecommunications (Singtel), the parent company to Optus which is under fire over its role in a Triple Zero outage across parts of the country, was not one of them. Despite declaring $8.2 billion in income, it had no taxable income or payable tax.

It’s the fourth successive year that Singtel has declared more than $8 billion in income but not paid company tax. It last paid tax in 2019-20 when, on income of $9 billion, it declared $181.8 million in taxable income and paid $43 million in tax.

Singtel told this masthead that Optus, the only business it owns in Australia, was in a “negative tax position due to its infrastructure investments and operating expenses”. A spokesperson said that the last year Optus was profitable was in 2019-20, adding that the Singtel group undertook “all its legal and governance responsibilities diligently including its Australian tax obligations”.

Global meat giant JBS, which has come under fire overseas for its ability to minimise its tax obligations, paid no tax on $19.7 billion in income. It did not declare any taxable income.

In 2022-23, Qantas was the leading non-tax paying company. In 2023-24, the airline paid $8 million in tax on total income of $21.6 billion and taxable income of $46 million.

Other prominent firms to not pay tax included Netflix (with $1.2 billion in income), Transurban ($3.3 billion), Toll Holdings ($2.9 billion), Tabcorp ($1.9 billion), Virgin Australia ($5.8 billion) and News Australia ($1.8 billion).

A record low 28 per cent of large firms – more than 1000 – did not pay tax during the year. The Tax Office noted that there were legitimate reasons for a company not to pay tax, including poor trading conditions or that they had used previous year tax losses.

The nation’s top 10 taxpayers included a company heavily involved in lithium development, Windfield Holdings, for the first time. It had income of almost $10 billion, paying $2.6 billion in tax on $8.8 billion of taxable income.

Rio Tinto was the single largest taxpayer, handing over $6.3 billion in income tax on $52.8 billion in total income. It was a $500 million increase on 2022-23.

BHP Group paid $6 billion on $62.5 billion in income while an associated company, BHP Iron Ore, paid $2.1 billion in tax on its $10.3 billion in income.

Other larger taxpaying miners included Fortescue ($3.9 billion), Glencore Investments ($1.9 billion), Woodside ($1.7 billion) and Roy Hill Holdings ($1.4 billion).

Chevron Australia Holdings was the fourth-largest taxpayer, paying $3.5 billion into the public coffers from $11.8 billion of taxable income. Balaji Krishnamurthy, the firm’s president, said the payment reflected “a year of strong performance driven by top-tier reliability and production achievements at our Gorgon and Wheatstone natural gas facilities”.

“Our substantial tax payments help fund the services Australians rely on, such as healthcare and cost-of-living support, and enable investment in the infrastructure and innovations that can position the country for long-term success,” he said.

Total tax paid by large corporates in 2023-24 was slightly down on the record $97.9 billion paid in 2022-23.

The drop was due to a fall in tax paid by the mining and energy sectors, which paid $48.5 billion in tax on $679.1 billion in income compared to $54.7 billion on $734.6 billion in income the preceding year. Lower commodity prices accounted for the drop, although tax out of oil and gas firms lifted to $10.4 billion as more businesses run out of previously accrued losses.

Petroleum Resources Rent Tax (PRRT) collections fell to $1.5 billion from $1.9 billion despite the number of companies paying the tax climbing to its largest number on record. The year marked the start of the federal government’s PRRT reforms aimed at bringing forward tax collections.

But the ATO noted a fall in oil prices, a drop in production levels plus the decommissioning of some projects offset the lift in companies paying the tax.

Five entities tied to Woodside Petroleum paid PRRT in 2023-24, up from three the previous year. Among the new entities was Woodside Burrup, which paid $150 million in PRRT.

Assistant tax commissioner Michelle Sams said Australia had one of the highest levels of tax compliance by large businesses in the world, with 94.1 per cent of tax paid voluntarily and 96.3 per cent after compliance actions.

“The data continues to demonstrate the high levels of compliance amongst our largest corporates which is what the Australian community expects,” she said.

Australian tech company Atlassian paid the most tax of any technology firm. It paid $252.8 million in tax on total income of $6.2 billion. In 2022-23, it paid just $9.3 million on $5 billion of income.

Microsoft paid $161.7 million on $8 billion of income, Apple paid $153.7 million on $12.4 billion while Google paid $132.4 million on $2.1 billion in income.

The Corporate Tax Association said the figures should give the government impetus to consider company tax reform.

“With Australia’s corporate tax system proven to be world-leading in terms of both tax collections and compliance, now is the time to consider positive reforms that will grow the corporate tax pie for all Australians,” the association’s executive director Michelle de Niese said.

Australian Energy Producers, an industry group that represents major firms such as BP, Hancock Prospecting and Origin, said the industry had made its highest annual tax contribution to date in 2023-24.

“The results dispel the myth that Australia’s oil and gas sector does not pay its fair share. The fact is that the oil and gas sector is Australia’s second-largest corporate taxpayer, which helps pay for essential services and infrastructure for all Australians,” said the association’s chief Samantha McCulloch.

Ichthys LNG and Santos did not respond to a request for comment.

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