By Matthew McKenzie

Copyright thewest

Australia’s biggest resources businesses paid $48 billion of company tax in 2024, the third year in a row the industry chipped in more to the national budget than all others combined.

Data released by the Australian Taxation Office on Thursday shows major companies paid almost $96b between them in the 2024 financial year.

That was the second-highest bill on record but slipped 2.3 per cent from the previous year.

While the mining tally — which also included energy and water — was eye-popping and made up half the total, it was down by $6 billion thanks to easing commodity prices.

Rio Tinto, BHP, Fortescue and Chevron were the country’s top taxpayers for the year.

Also in the highest echelons were big banks and supermarkets.

The ATO publishes the figures through its tax transparency report, which targets more than 4,000 businesses with annual revenue above $100 million.

ATO assistant commissioner Michelle Sams said the data showed “high levels of compliance amongst our largest corporates”.

“Australia has some of the highest levels of tax compliance of large business in the world with 94.1 per cent of tax paid voluntarily, and 96.3 per cent after ATO’s compliance actions,” she said.

Australia’s big companies pay a tax rate of 30 per cent on profit but can claim offsets, including for past losses.

About 28 per cent of large businesses did not pay tax — which the ATO said was the lowest proportion since public reporting started 11 years ago.

The vast majority of those companies paying nothing were either losing money or deducting losses from previous years.

Oil and gas businesses paid $10.4bn of company tax, led by Chevron and Woodside Energy.

But Petroleum Resources Rent Tax collections tallied just $1.5bn — which will spark fresh debate about the effectiveness of the super profit tax.

The Federal Government rejigged the petroleum tax’s rules in 2024 promising the changes would bring in about $2.4bn over four years.

Yet the PRRT take declined because of a lower oil price and decommissioning costs.

More to come