Written by: Nick G. on 2 October 2026
(Photo supplied from original by fernando Goncalves)
Eleven years ago, public outrage at large local and foreign corporations engaging in tax evasion or avoidance, legal or otherwise, compelled the Australian Taxation Office to release an annual list of the largest corporations and their taxes.
The lists are compiled from companies that have an annual income of $100 million or more, so it really represents only the tip of an iceberg if all companies were represented.
Nevertheless, the eleven years’ worth of data shows that roughly one-third of the largest corporations in Australia contribute nothing in taxes to the government’s ability to pay for the programs and services it has to fund.
Minimal attempts to compel corporations to pay taxes on their Australian earnings have had little effect. In the 2013-14 financial year companies comprising 38% of the 1539 largest local and foreign companies operating in Australia paid no tax.
For the 2020-21 financial year, that per centage had only fallen to 32%.
The figures for the latest financial year, 2024-5, show that per centage has still only fallen to 28%, an improvement on the 2013-14 figure, but indicating that big companies can use various means to continue to avoid paying tax.
Fossil fuel giant Santos Ltd, which paid no tax in 2024-25 on $5.1 billion in earnings, is a serial offender, having paid zero corporate tax on nearly $52 billion in sales over the 11 consecutive years of ATO public disclosures.
Japanese-owned Ichthys LNG Pty Ltd has paid no tax (including the Petroleum Resources Rent Tax) for the last seven years on total earnings of $53 billion. Its Japanese owner, the oil company Inpex Corporation, owns and operates a gas field off the north-west coast of Western Australia, said to be one of the most significant energy projects in the world.
Optus owner Singtel, with an $8.3bn income in 2024–25, has paid no tax for five years.
Notorious Brazilian meat company JBS Global Meat Holdings, which has over 250 production facilities around the world and whose products reach consumers in 180 countries, paid no tax on its 2024-25 income of $4.8 billion, and has a recurring pattern of paying no tax.
Even those companies that do pay tax sometimes pay very little. Three random examples are:
• Arrow Commodities Pty Ltd, which exports wheat, feedstocks and many other agricultural commodities, paid only $512,130 on 2024-25 earnings of $678,394,324
• Atlas Fuel Australia Ltd paid only $135,931 on earnings of $264,100,261
• China-based UBI Logistics (Australia) Ltd paid only $36,316 on earnings of $106,581,823.
Years ago, our Party advanced the tactical slogan “Make the Rich Pay”. It was based on the premise that the rich weren’t paying enough for the social programs of the people. It now transpires that the rich constantly strive, and often successfully, to pay nothing at all, year after year.
As an immediate demand, “Make the Rich Pay….something, anything” still resonates.
However, the days when we continue to tolerate the rich at all are drawing to a close.
Ultimately, this struggle between the rich and the rest will have to be resolved by bringing private ownership of industry, finance and commerce under the control of a working class state in a socialist and independent Australia.
