One in three large Australian companies did not pay tax in 2014: report

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has on Thursday revealed that near 600 of Australia's top earning companies did not pay any tax in 2014.

The report showed that of the about 1,500 companies with annual incomes of more than 73 million U.S dollars, 579 - or near 37 percent - did not pay tax.

Large companies on the list include airlines Qantas and Virgin Australia, local General Motors arm Holden, telco Vodafone, oil and gas company Exxon-Mobil and cleaning company Spotless Group.

The ATO did stress that there were a number of reasons that companies might not pay tax in Australia, explaining that a number of companies on the list were operating a financial loss throughout the year.

Qantas reported a 2.04-billion-U.S-dollar loss that financial year, while other companies also finished in the red, and as a result were not required to pay tax in order to help keep them afloat.

Peter Burn, head of policy at the Australian Industry Group, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that tax was "not a simple thing" and some large companies had been given a tax break in order to survive.

"Manufacturing companies for example have been doing it pretty tough over the last several years, and many of those wouldn't have made a profit for a while, and they will have had accumulated losses," Burn said on Thursday.

"In other industries were similarly affected by the high dollar and the vacillations in the economy, such as tourism and the like," he added.

"Mining will be affected in years such as this where prices are very low, so it will vary year-to-year and depending on the circumstances of the companies," said he.

He added that some companies, though earning revenue in Australia, pay tax in other nations.

The report was commissioned in order for the public to build "trust and confidence" in making sure large companies pay their fair share of tax for federal projects.

Commissioner of Taxation Chris Jordan told the ABC the transparency of the report could signal the end of tax evasion by large companies.

"Tax should matter to these companies. It is not something to be taken lightly," Jordan said.

"Collectively, these 1,500 large corporates paid almost 40 billion (AUD) in company tax in the 2014 fiscal year," Jordan said.

"Most large corporates, particularly domestic Australian companies, meet their tax obligations, notwithstanding that we do have some significant disputes with some of them," Jordan added.

However the federal Opposition has slammed the report, labeling it the "data the Liberal party didn't want you to see." Endit