Do you pay more tax than the big fossil fuel companies?

For all the environmental and climate destruction wrought by the fossil fuel industry here in Australia and globally, you’d think there must be a significant payback through taxes, right?

Unfortunately not.

We have analysed the Australian Tax Office’s most recent corporate tax filings, as well as data from the last ten years, and found that Australia’s biggest fossil fuel companies often pay less tax than the typical Australian worker. In many cases, they barely pay any tax at all.

So how is this happening?

Coal, oil and gas companies use all sorts of accounting tricks to reduce their tax bill. One of their favourite tricks is carrying forward losses from previous tax years; it’s like a piggy bank, except instead of coins it holds all the bad decisions and risk taking from years gone by. Companies can carry forward their losses for as long as they like and use them to reduce their tax bill when it best suits them. That way, taxpayers can subsidise their reckless behaviour for years after the fact, even as the companies fall on good times and rake in hundreds of billions of dollars from spiking energy prices.

They use more insidious tricks, too. For example, the ATO slapped international oil major Chevron with a $300m tax bill in 2017, after the company used a US-based entity to loan money to itself at a high interest rate, reducing its profit in Australia and thus its tax bill.

Check out our interactive analysis and full results below.

Tax reported by joint ventures has been apportioned to partner companies according to their ownership stake as of December 2023. Data reported by subsidiaries has been attributed to their ultimate parent to the greatest extent possible. Source: ATO

Tax reported by joint ventures has been apportioned to partner companies according to their ownership stake as of December 2023; this does not take historical mergers, divestments and acquisitions into account. Data reported by subsidiaries has been attributed to their ultimate parent to the greatest extent possible. The median personal income in 2020-21 was roughly $55,000 with estimated personal income tax of $8,300, meaning a tax rate of around 15%. Sources: ABS, ATO

Tax reported by joint ventures has been apportioned to partner companies according to their ownership stake as of December 2023. Data reported by subsidiaries has been attributed to their ultimate parent to the greatest extent possible. Source: ATO

Tax reported by joint ventures has been apportioned to partner companies according to their ownership stake as of December 2023; this does not take historical mergers, divestments and acquisitions into account. Data reported by subsidiaries has been attributed to their ultimate parent to the greatest extent possible. The median personal income in 2020-21 was roughly $55,000 with estimated personal income tax of $8,300, meaning a tax rate of around 15%. Sources: ABS, ATO