Are you paying too much tax? then read this.

[Roverlord off road spares]

There were 732 companies who paid no tax in Australia in the 2015-16 financial year. Collectively, their income was more than $500 billion.


The ATO just dropped corporate tax data and more than 700 companies paid nothing - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-07/corporate-tax-data-released-by-ato/9236878'sf175574452=1)

[trog]

I pay my taxes and rates as billed , and now I am helping the company I "work" for with their tax bill. Seems the work can't be left undone , but to get it done overtime is required, but there is no overtime pay unless prior approved. Don't know if you will need the ot until actually there on the clock . Has me confused.

[NavyDiver]

It is a interesting read. Acer Computers was one of many who is highly unlikely to ever get a cent out of me after looking at it. Who is your favoirte tax avoider?

[Roverlord off road spares]

STANLEY BLACK & DECKER HOLDINGS AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, no tax paid, will have to think twice now about buying their tools.

[weeds]

This comes up every now and than.....

I see the company i work appears in the list but it says

Taxable income $0
Tax Paid $0

Not sure what that means.

[JDNSW]

Most of the companies which pay no tax have avoided paying tax by the simple expedient of having no taxable income.

How does an apparently prosperous company avoid having taxable income?

1. They are spending more money on legitimate expenses than they get in income, the difference being made up by either capital or borrowing. In most cases this is because of expenses incurred in the expectation of making a greater profit in the future, or because of unexpected changes in circumstances. This is common in mining companies where the company will operate at a loss while a project is being explored and developed, and after it starts production the carried losses can be offset against taxable income for many years - and often the planned income never happens because of changes in commodity prices or changes in taxes etc.

2. The company is only "apparently" prosperous. Airlines are a prime example. The history of aviation shows that almost all airlines have always operated at a loss, requiring capital injections or subsidies to keep going. Many companies in this category are prime targets for takeover, asset stripping, and collapse.

3. Tax is not paid because the company has simply taken advantage of tax exemptions intended to prop up particular industries, unions, or votes. The culprit here is the legislation and the government that introduced it (often many years ago), not the company.

4. Relatively rarely, some form of evasion is involved. This will usually be a creative interpretation of tax law, taking advantage of the wording of the law. These cases usually end up in court, but whether ATO or the company wins is by no means certain. Blame the parliamentary clerks who drew up the legislation and the governments that have failed to amend the legislation. Often unintended consequences of what looked like a good idea at the time.

5. Also relatively rare, actual evasion, usually by artifacts such as transfer pricing, or actual fraud by artifacts such as false books. The prosecution of these depends mainly on the ability of ATO to detect and audit them. This is limited by the staff available, and to some extent the inability of ATO to pay the salaries that really bright accountants can get working for companies in category 4.

[AndyG]

Thanks JDNSW,
Yes, revenue is somewhat irrelevant, profit is the relevant measure. Apart from maybe a dodgy interpretation of a badly written law, i would say the vast majority follow the rules made by politicians that we selected. So its your fault:-P

[Chops]

There's certainly some big money in there,,, I did have a little chuckle at one of the fishing mobs,,, $43 "taxable income" [bigwhistle], although it could possibly be a typo.

Realistically, its disturbing that so much money can change hands, yet not be taxed. I dont understand how they/we can let this happen. I get that there are obviously loopholes etc that can help not pay "so" much taxes, but I don't think it's right that so many can get away with paying nothing at all.
Surely for the massive amounts at stake, you'd think it'd be worthwhile hiring more people for the groundwork required to limit this, or these practices so as to help regain the monies involved.
Although I don't want to turn this into a political thing, surely our Govt's can change/reform laws which allow companies to get away with it,, you'd think they'd want to be getting more money so they can spend it on stuff (??).

[trog]

I thought our rulers had proposed a tax cut so as to try and get some tax monies that they would otherwise not get ? Maybe the same automated system used to track dole bludgers might work 🤣

[trout1105]

As Most Australian families run at break even or at a loss so in all fairness the average wage earner should only be taxed (Like companies) on what they have been able to put into the Bank (Profit) over the year [bigwhistle][bigwhistle]

[trog]

As Most Australian families run at break even or at a loss so in all fairness the average wage earner should only be taxed (Like companies) on what they have been able to put into the Bank (Profit) over the year [bigwhistle][bigwhistle]

Revolution would be happy with less money spent on bitumen !

[trout1105]

Revolution would be happy with less money spent on bitumen !

I was under the impression that licencing and rego fees were initially introduced to fund road repairs and projects which is yet another thing companies can claim as a tax dodge that individuals can't. [tonguewink]

[trog]

Revolution would be happy with less money spent on bitumen !

Oops spell check got me , I meant eevo!

[Roverlord off road spares]

I thought our rulers had proposed a tax cut so as to try and get some tax monies that they would otherwise not get ? Maybe the same automated system used to track dole bludgers might work 🤣
I watched a program on SBS called Struggle Street Conversation it was directly after the last episode of Struggle Street. On the panel they had an economist. He made a point that unemployed are actually doing us a big favor.
If they all became employed, then the economy would grow and the risk of overheating. This puts pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates and the majority would suffer. So unemployed people are useful he said.

[V8Ian]

Unemployed also keep the price of labour down.

[weeds]

I watched a program on SBS called Struggle Street Conversation it was directly after the last episode of Struggle Street. On the panel they had an economist. He made a point that unemployed are actually doing us a big favor.
If they all became employed, then the economy would grow and the risk of overheating. This puts pressure on the Reserve Bank to raise interest rates and the majority would suffer. So unemployed people are useful he said.

I didn’t see that episode but correct 0% unemployment present a whole lot of other issues.

[ATH]

Anyone who legally avoids paying any more than they have to is not breaking any of the huge amount of the laws made by our mostly worthless politicians. What we could really do without is so many obviously incompetent big spending law makers and some fairness in the system.
And a darn sight less off giving money away to those individuals (and some countries via foreign aid) who have never contributed and are never likely to. Among those I do not include the many disabled etc.
AlanH.

[dero]

If your Ferrari , yacht , meals , accomodation , travel , drinks , women etc. are tax deductable , then who needs an income ?

[Bigbjorn]

In my forty years working life I was self-employed much of the time and worked for wages, salary, commission for the rest. When on salary + commission I had a few real good years with a quite high income. I paid a lot of income tax in those years with little opportunity to avoid it. When self-employed I paid very little tax due to the way our Income Tax Assessment laws favour self-employed, investors, primary producers. This is wrong and highly discriminatory. I do not think any pollies would have the intestinal fortitude to ever correct this.

One way of correcting this anomaly would be to remove income tax and introduce a turnover tax on all. You grossed $10,000,000 so send us 5%, no deductions or exemptions just a simple percentage of your gross. Those trading for unrecorded cash in the black economy would continue on rorting the system like they do now but wage earners and businesses can't hide their receipts. This would sort out those international corporations that trade at inflated prices with their overseas affiliates.