Global Daily Tax News, Australia Releases Annual Corporate Tax Transparency Report, (Oct 3, 2025)

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has published its annual Corporate Tax Transparency (CTT) report, revealing large corporates paid a combined AUD95.7bn in income tax in 2023–, marking the second-highest total ever recorded.

When combined with the results from the ATO's compliance programs for large business (which includes both public and private corporate groups), it is the second year in a row that large businesses have paid in excess of AUD100bn in tax.

Assistant Commissioner Michelle Sams said: "While the tax paid by this population will reflect the economic conditions during the year, the overall trend is clear: the data continues to demonstrate the high levels of compliance amongst our largest corporates, which is what the Australian community expects. Australia has some of the highest levels of tax compliance of large businesses in the world, with 94.1 percent of tax paid voluntarily, and [a compliance rate of] 96.3 percent after ATO's compliance actions."

The percentage of those entities that paid no income tax in the CTT report decreased from 31 percent in 2022– to 28 percent in 2023

According to the ATO, more large oil and gas companies moved to a tax payable position in 2023-24, as carry-forward losses were depleted. Corporate tax paid by the oil and gas segment for the year was AUD10.4 billion. As a result of the commencement of the deductions cap on July 1, 2023, the number of entities paying petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) has increased from 11 to 16.

PRRT payable decreased from AUD1.87bn to AUD1.48bn for 2023-24. This reflects lower oil prices as well as decreasing production and decommissioning activities for some projects, the ATO said.

Sams said: "For the first time since CTT reporting began, the amount of entities paying no tax has dropped below 30 percent. This is the lowest proportion of nil tax entities in eleven years of CTT reporting and in part reflects the continued efforts of the Tax Avoidance Taskforce in holding large corporates to account. While there are legitimate reasons why a company may pay no income tax, the Australian community can be assured we pay close attention to those who don't pay corporate tax and ensure that they are not gaming the system."

Since the Tax Avoidance Taskforce commenced in 2016, it has supported the collection of more than AUD37.6bn in additional tax revenue from multinational enterprises and large public and private businesses (as of June 30, 2025).

The ATO has also released the 2023-24 Report of Entity Tax Information. ATO is required to prepare and publish the report by law. It includes information from returns and amendments (requested by the relevant entity), that are processed by September 1 of the year following the tax year being reported. The report features information from entities on total income; taxable income; tax payable; and PRRT payable.

For the 2022– income year and onwards, the corporate tax transparency population includes:

• any corporate tax entity that has total income equal to or exceeding AUD100m; and

• entities reporting petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) payable.