Tax transparency report shows drop in non-paying firms

• 27% of companies turning over more than $100 million paid no income tax in the 2025 financial year.
• Total corporate tax collections fell 8.6% to $87.5 billion due to weaker commodity prices in the mining sector.
• Tax compliance measures and new deduction caps helped lift the proportion of large entities paying income tax to a record high.

More than one in four large companies operating in Australia paid no income tax in the 2025 financial year, according to the latest corporate tax transparency report released by the Australian Taxation Office.

The non-payment rate of 27% across 4,299 entities turning over more than $100 million represents the lowest proportion recorded since reporting began 12 years ago, when 36 per cent of large firms paid no income tax.

"Many large businesses legitimately pay no income tax but we continue to scrutinise these outcomes closely, as the community expects," said ATO Acting Deputy Commissioner Michelle Sams.

Secondary figures show the tax authority collected $87.5 billion from the covered entities in 2024-25, down 8.6% from the previous period, as lower commodity prices reduced tax revenue from the mining sector to $35.9 billion.

Despite the broader drop in mining revenues, oil and gas entities paid $10.6 billion, while petroleum resource rent tax collections rose more than 26% to $1.87 billion across 21 companies following new deduction limits for offshore projects.

The tax collection outcomes follow extended enforcement efforts by the government authority, which stated that its dedicated taskforce has recovered more than $36 billion in tax revenues from large private firms and multinational corporations since 2016.

The Australian Taxation Office stated that it will maintain close oversight of corporate tax compliance to ensure domestic and foreign-owned entities meet their legal tax obligations in future reporting periods.