The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has published its annual Corporate tax transparency (CTT) report revealing large corporates paid a combined $95.7 billion in income tax in 2023–24, marking the second-highest total ever recorded.
When combined with the results from our compliance programs for large business (which includes both public and private corporate groups), it is the second year in a row that large business has paid in excess of $100 billion in tax.
Assistant Commissioner Michelle Sams commended the hard work of the taskforce over many years to support improvements in voluntary compliance and ensure that these companies pay the right amount of tax.
'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,' Ms Sams said.
‘Australia has some of the highest levels of tax compliance of large business in the world with 94.1% of tax paid voluntarily, and 96.3% after ATO’s compliance actions.’
The percentage of those entities that paid no income tax in the CTT report has decreased from 31% in 2022–23 to 28% in 2023–24. There can be legitimate reasons why entities do not pay tax, for example they have an accounting or tax loss, or they utilised tax offsets or losses from previous years.
‘For the first time since CTT reporting began, the amount of entities paying no tax has dropped below 30%. 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,’ Ms Sams said.
‘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.'
‘Continued investment in the Tax Avoidance Taskforce bolsters our efforts to identify and take action against those companies that don’t pay the right amount of tax.’
Whilst the total amount of corporate tax may be lower than the previous year, it is the second highest amount paid since reporting began. Commodity prices were once again a key driver of the change in corporate tax payments. However, this was offset in part by improvements in tax payable by non-mining sectors.
‘Despite a decrease in tax payable reflecting weaker commodity prices which impacted profitability of major producers in the sector, 2023–24 is the third year in a row that the mining sector paid more tax than all other sectors combined,' Ms Sams said.
Australian private companies also showed a strong increase in tax payable.
‘There was a small increase in private entities but more than a 20% increase in tax paid (or more than $2 billion) by these private entities compared to the previous year,’ said Ms Sams.
Corporate tax transparency report
The ATO is required under law to publish tax information reported to us by certain large companies each year. This year’s tax transparency report covers 4,110 corporate entities, of which:
- 1,712 are foreign-owned companies with an income of $100 million or more
- 583 are Australian public entities with an income of $100 million or more
- 1,815 are Australian-owned resident private companies with an income of $100 million or more.
The companies in the report paid a combined total of $95.7 billion corporate income tax in 2023–24.
This is the second year that data for Australian-owned private entities with total income between $100 million to $200 million is reported.
It is important to note that data in the report is taken directly from tax returns and does not reflect any intervention or compliance work by the ATO after lodgment of the returns.
Tax Avoidance Taskforce
The Australian Government continues to provide specific funding to the ATO for the Tax Avoidance Taskforce. The Taskforce significantly increases the ability of the ATO to focus on the compliance of large public and private groups and high wealth individuals.
We use the funding provided for the Taskforce to employ and support staff in our compliance and assurance programs. Our staff play a vital role in helping large business meet their tax obligations and challenging tax avoidance structures in order to protect Australia’s revenue base.
Businesses respond to our presence. We have observed improvements in the tax compliance of large corporates over time as a result of our monitoring and compliance activities. We estimate that if we halved our investment in this area, within five years tax compliance would take a backwards step.
Since the Tax Avoidance Taskforce commenced in 2016, it has helped secure more than $37.6 billion in additional tax revenue from multinational enterprises, large public and private businesses (as at 30 June 2025).
Oil and Gas
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 & gas segment for the year was $10.4 billion.
As a result of the commencement of the deductions cap on 1 July 2023, the number of entities paying petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) has increased from 11 to 16.
PRRT payable decreased from $1,867.1 million to $1,483.3 million for 2023-24. This reflects lower oil prices as well as decreasing production and decommissioning activities for some projects.
Our latest estimates show a PRRT gap of 2.7% or $51 million. This means that we expect to collect around 97% of PRRT that should be paid.
Notes to journalists
Corporate tax transparency report 2023–24 income year
2023–24 Report of entity tax information
Findings report RTP – Public and multinational businesses
Findings report – Top 100 income tax and GST assurance programs
Public Groups and International Advice and Guidance program
Findings report – Top 1,000 income tax and GST assurance programs
Australian tax gaps (For information on Large business tax gap)
Images for media
Assistant Commissioner Michelle Sams (JPG, 1.6MB)
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