TOP 10 AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES WHICH DIDN'T PAY TAX 2013/2014

As sourced from the ATO. Not quite sure how I feel about the privacy breach. Note that income is a direct link to profit.

*Qantas Airways, earned 14.9 billion

*GHP 104 160 689 Pty Ltd, earned $11.731 billion

*ExxonMobil Australia, earned $9.617 billion

*Lend Lease Corporation, earned $7.683 billion

*Citic Resources, earned $5.051 billion

*Mitsubishi Development, earned $4.615 billion

*Glencore Investment, earned $4.612 billion

*Hope Downs Marketing, earned $4.445 billion

*Virgin Australia, earned $4.3 billion

*General Motors Australia, earned $4.138 billion

 

No it's not.

 

Not sure what they're aiming to prove. Virgin for example lost $400m that year. Qantas lose $2.8b.

It doesn't matter who you are, if your taxable income is negative you almost certainly wont be paying tax.

 

What were their Payroll Tax bills?

How much GST did they generate to the Coffers?

My workshop GST bill per year is a pathetic $21k on average that I have to pay back to Mal, and I am far from a thriving massive Company.

Howe many jobs did they provide, or provide indirectly through associated industries they need to work with to run their businesses?

How many of us here enjoyed a few of their products; cheap flights to Vietnam or wherever for instance? I took my family to the Gold Coast in lat Oct - thanks Virgin.

We spent a poultice while in QLD - hope the locals liked that.

See; this is where this whole argument falls down.

Us miserable PAYE folks think we are hard done by; but what do we actually contribute in volumes of real dollars in comparison?

Here's a clue; bugger all.

Having said that; I definitely think any Multi-National Company that is not based here in Aus, should be paying tax on any income earned in Aus before it leaves for wherever they are based.

The catch is; if these Companies start having to pay too much, guess what the result is - goodbye Aus to lots of jobs.

 

So you spent (read injected into the economy) $210k through your business over and above what you passed through from your suppliers to your clients.

Who says small business doesn't do anything to the local area?

 

We need to sort this out. I'm not against people making money but imo they should still contribute to the tax system.
There are individuals who are very rich who get away with this too.

 

They do contribute to the tax system, they are taxed on profits just as the law says.

So? Any individual who works to minimize their tax is intelligent, regardless of their net worth.

 

I thought the consumer of a company's products/services pays the GST. A company only collects the GST on behalf of the government and then passes it onto them.

 

This is a fundamentally ridiculous statement, you want entities that aren't making money to pay tax. Plus to act like there are no taxes being paid as a result of that income is ridiculous.

Let's take Qantas for example, their wages bill they paid out of that income was $3.7b, that's 3.7 billion. Let's assume that all of their employees fall in the lowest tax bracket and say that those employees paid tax at 19% on that amount, that's $703,000,000 in taxes being paid by Qantas employees. If they got 10% of their fuel from Australia that's another 45,000,000 in GST on that cost alone. Payroll tax on those wages is going to be in the 150,000,000 range.

Again, acting like they aren't paying a ton of taxes because they didn't pay income tax is just a ridiculous concept.

 

I'm not convinced they aren't making money. They have structures that make that the case for tax purposes only but they are making money otherwise they'd be gone

 

huh? do you really not know how a business works?

 

Yes. Make a profit or wind up. There's only so long you can go without making money. Lend lease make good money. They have been for years.

 

True.

And what annoys me is that I hear constantly on the radio and the teev how these evil Companies aren't paying enough tax...yesterday on the ABC for example it went on, and on and on about this, yet; no-one from the Companies or the Gubb comes on in their defense to say what you have just said.

I mean; all it would take to shut these whingers up is for the Treasurer of the day to go on tv or radio or both - and say exactly what you have just said.....but they never seem to do it.

 

All companies pay GST on their "cost of goods". They then charge GST on the sales of their products and services.

If the GST they collect from their sales is higher than their cost of goods GST - this difference gets paid to the Gubb.

It is not a direct cost to the Company per se...and the Company gets no reward for collecting this GST money on behalf of the Gubb.

 

Good you know the word profit. You pay tax on profit, not income. These companies did not make a profit hence did not pay company tax. Understand?

 

Obviously you don't have a clue, you must be a banker. If you spent a dollar this year to make 10 in five years time, then spend those $10 in five years time to make a $100. Why on earth would you wind up ? You don't have to pay tax to maximize your contribution to society. I would think it is the opposite as governments are very wasteful and inefficient at redistributing wealth. A person given a job pays tax and spends money creating more tax payers, one with out a job uses tax payers money

 

So we shouldn't allow airy fairy expenses like depreciation, amortization of losses etc

 

Let's not bring such big words into a debate on tax Scott!

 

I think the problem is that some companies deal with related companies to inflate expenses so that more income falls outside of Australia, usually in a tax haven.

 

Why doesn't the ABC do stories about good things mining companies do and the great contributions they make ? Here is just one example of one gesture that probably happens 1000s of x over, around Australia Where mining company contributions are much more valuable than paying Tax. In Ouyen the community have been trying to get recreational water for 2 decades. A mining company donated their surveyors engineers and and equipment and drivers to build a lake, it cost millions, It means tourism and jobs improved quality of life, it was of benefit to them. Even if the government did do it which they weren't, I bet it would have cost many times more.