Companies avoiding tax in Australia
Feb 14, 2018 | Miscellaneous
Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, one of the most prominent supporters of the Turnbull government’s proposed big business tax cut, presides over a company that hasn’t paid corporate tax for close to 10 years.
Here is a list of companies avoiding tax in Australia –NameTax paidTotal income ($)SectorADANI ABBOT POINT TERMINAL HOLDINGS PTY LTD0970,055,950CommoditiesADECCO HOLDINGS PTY LTD01,506,053,631MiscellaneousALINTA HOLDINGS04,216,609,398EnergyAMCOR LIMITED07,055,763,985MiscellaneousAMERICAN EXPRESS AUSTRALIA LIMITED02,783,800,000Investment/foreign banksANSELL LIMITED0971,946,789MiscellaneousAPN NEWS & MEDIA LTD01,150,853,425MediaAPPLE PTY LTD338,270,28122,072,209,825TechnologyATLASSIAN AUSTRALIA 1 PTY LTD0#967,196,944TechnologyBABCOCK & BROWN INTERNATIONAL PTY LTD01,722,376,955Investment/foreign banksBAE SYSTEMS AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED04,080,795,842MiscellaneousBARCLAYS BANK PLC01,435,935,548Investment/foreign banksBILLABONG INTERNATIONAL LTD01,775,841,709MiscellaneousBLUESCOPE STEEL LTD014,549,521,747CommoditiesBNP PARIBAS S.A09,319,136,945Investment/foreign banksBROADSPECTRUM LIMITED08,616,335,336MiscellaneousCHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND0#239,541,563Business advisory and accountingCPA AUSTRALIA LTD1,967493,025,000Business advisory and accountingCSR LIMITED05,190,938,106CommoditiesDIMENSION DATA AUSTRALIA PTY LTD03,674,993,802TechnologyEMIRATES AIRLINE0546,639,137AirlinesENERGYAUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED023,901,332,940EnergyETIHAD AIRWAYS PJSC01,082,573,475AirlinesEXXONMOBIL AUSTRALIA PTY LTD024,810,160,190CommoditiesFAIRFAX MEDIA LIMITED53,166,8134,580,513,275MediaFOXTEL CABLE TELEVISION PTY LIMITED06,006,084,503MediaFOXTEL MANAGEMENT PTY LTD0810,717,934MediaGLENCORE GRAIN HOLDINGS AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED0#4,132,120,862CommoditiesGLENCORE INVESTMENT PTY LIMITED027,929,635,183CommoditiesGOLDMAN SACHS HOLDINGS ANZ PTY LIMITED01,844,322,093Investment/foreign banksGOOGLE AUSTRALIA PTY LIMITED37,423,5991,298,266,767TechnologyGPT MANAGEMENT HOLDINGS LIMITED0498,869,075Property and constructionGROCON GROUP HOLDINGS PTY LTD01,275,925,113Property and constructionHOCHTIEF AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED0718,078,437Property and constructionJPMORGAN CHASE BANK NATIONAL ASSOCIATION02,160,011,920Investment/foreign banksLENDLEASE CORPORATION LIMITED024,388,062,555Property and constructionMACKAY SUGAR LTD01,373,222,981CommoditiesMYOB GROUP LIMITED0783,678,307Business advisory and accountingNEC AUSTRALIA PTY LTD01,221,261,407TechnologyNEWS AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS PTY LIMITED08,532,558,083MediaQANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED046,125,938,374AirlinesQATAR AIRWAYS (Q.C.S.C)01,159,924,321AirlinesROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PLC (AUSTRALIA BRANCH)01,384,940,790Investment/foreign banksSTOCKLAND CORPORATION LTD04,568,483,833Property and constructionTHE BOSTON CONSULTING GROUP PTY LTD0398,014,708Business advisory and accountingTIGER AIRWAYS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD01,349,159,787AirlinesTRANSURBAN HOLDINGS LIMITED05,807,731,296Property and constructionVIRGIN AUSTRALIA HOLDINGS LIMITED013,318,284,353AirlinesVODAFONE HUTCHISON AUSTRALIA PTY LTD011,831,941,032Miscellaneous
The period roughly coincides with Mr Joyce’s tenure at the helm of Australia’s flag carrier. Despite generating income of $106.4 billion, the flying kangaroo has avoided paying tax on that bounty since 2009, thanks to Australia’s generous tax concessions, depreciation provisions and the ability to offset company losses against past and future profits. New analysis by the ABC reveals Qantas is not alone – its tax behaviour is consistent with about 380 of Australia’s largest companies. ATO corporate tax transparency data – confirmed in email exchanges with company representatives – reveals about one in five of the country’s biggest companies have paid no tax for at least the past three years.
High-flyers land no tax
Not one of Australia’s biggest airlines has paid corporate tax since at least 2013, including Virgin and its subsidiary Tigerair, Etihad, Emirates and Qatar.
Each one of those companies has sold billions of dollars worth of tickets in Australia.
When asked for an explanation, both Qantas and Virgin pointed the ABC to their historical losses and the entirely legitimate use of Australia’s tax laws that allow them to offset those losses against future profits indefinitely.
Both companies were at pains to point out that, notwithstanding their zero corporate tax liabilities, they had continued to collect and pay departure taxes, fuel and alcohol excises, payroll tax, GST and FBT.
Presumably that’s what the Etihad spokesman was alluding to in his statement to the ABC.
“Etihad is fully compliant with all Australian tax requirements, and has paid all the taxes it is obligated to do so under Australian law.”
EnergyAustralia’s tax-free decade
At a time when Australian households have seen their electricity prices soar, the country’s leading energy retailer, EnergyAustralia hasn’t been paying corporate tax. EnergyAustralia paid no corporate tax for the decade to 2016.
For the three years to June 2016, EnergyAustralia’s 1.7 million electricity and gas customers across eastern Australia helped it record $24 billion worth of income on which no tax was paid.
An EnergyAustralia spokesperson said the company’s performance, “reflects how the power-generation sector is underpinned by assets that were built last century”.
“Since 2006, EnergyAustralia has written down the value of its assets by $1.9 billion.”
How much tax did the big banks pay?
Ten years after the global financial crisis – which they are largely responsible for creating – some of the world’s most prominent investment banks are collecting tidy sums of income in Australia and not paying corporate tax.
Among them is Malcolm Turnbull’s old employer, Goldman Sachs, which recently won a lucrative contract with the NSW government.
Described by Rolling Stone Magazine as, “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money”, Goldman will be paid $16.5 million as the state’s financial adviser on the sale of the $16.8 billion WestConnex motorway in NSW.
The investment bank generated revenue of $1.84 billion over three years but paid zero corporate tax.
Ditto for JPMorgan Chase which raked in $2.2 billion and hasn’t paid corporate tax since at least 2013.
In one of the most audacious explanations advanced to the ABC for the non-payment of corporate tax, a spokesman for America’s biggest bank said JPMorgan was still suffering the aftershocks of the financial crisis which meant its Australian operations continued to operate at a loss.
But late last year, it emerged JPMorgan Chase agreed to pay a record $13 billion fine to US federal and state authorities in 2013.
The purpose of this fine was to settle claims it had misled investors in the years leading up to 2008.
Could the bank be writing that fine off against its Australian income? The spokesman didn’t care to elaborate.
News Corp pays no tax on $71m profit
All the focus on the tax shenanigans of foreign technology and media companies has diverted our gaze from the taxpaying habits of some of their home grown rivals.
The most obvious one is Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, which hasn’t paid corporate tax in Australia for at least four years.
The media colossus reported total income of $8.5 billion and even boasted a $71 million profit in 2014/15 but no corporate tax was paid.
The company’s corporate affairs boss, Liz Deegan, wrote to the ABC to clarify that: “News Corp Australia has deductible operating costs and certain tax incentives and allowable credits, like R&D and franking credits, that offset the revenue disclosed.”
Its partly owned pay-TV company, Foxtel, received a $30 million gift from the federal government in the last budget, ostensibly to provide better coverage of female sports.
In the three years prior, Foxtel had also not paid corporate tax. Fairfax, News Corp’s newspaper rival in Australia, paid $53.1 million in corporate tax over the same period.
Credit – https://thenewdaily.com.au/money/finance-news/2018/02/14/australias-largest-companies-corporate-tax-10-years
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