Thread: Are you paying too much tax? then read this.

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.

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?

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

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.

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.

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

There's certainly some big money in there,,, I did have a little chuckle at one of the fishing mobs,,, $43 "taxable income" , 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 (??).

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 🤣