Large companies paid the Australian government a record $100bn in tax in the past year, a 17% increase on the previous year. But, over the same period, there were still 31% of large companies operating here but not paying any tax.

The Australian Taxation Office’s annual corporate tax transparency report, released last week, includes data on nearly 4,000 of Australia’s largest corporations.

In its 10th year, the report is lauded by the government and ATO as a way to increase corporate accountability and reduce tax avoidance. But there is no detail on the tax practices of multinational entities, including how they interact with their offices around the world.

In particular, there is little information about how 1,200 companies paid no tax.

The transparency report provides data on corporations with income of $100m or more and businesses which pay the petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT). This includes Australian public and foreign-owned corporate tax entities, as well as Australian-owned resident private companies.

The report details the total income, taxable income, tax payable and PRRT payable for all entities that meet the reporting threshold. Taxable income is simply assessable income minus deductions. Tax payable as a percentage of taxable income can then be used to calculate an effective tax rate. The statutory corporate tax rate is 30%.

A variation between an effective tax rate and the statutory tax rate is not evidence of tax avoidance. However, questions need to be asked about how profitable companies reduce their tax liability to........

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