Almost a third of Australia’s large companies pay no income tax

ATO tax transparency report finds Woodside Petroleum among large companies to have paid no tax in Australia in 2020 -21. Photograph: Richard Wainwright/AP

Almost one-third of large corporations paid no income tax in Australia in 2020-2021, including more than half of the nation’s major mining, energy and water companies, a new report shows.

The Australian Taxation Office released its annual tax transparency report on Thursday, which reveals the amount of tax paid by 2,468 large and medium corporate entities. Of those, 782 (32%) paid no tax at all in the financial year, down from a high of 36% in 2015-16.