Each year, Australia's tax transparency data surfaces the same quiet paradox: corporations earning billions within a society's borders contribute nothing to its upkeep, not through fraud, but through the architecture of the law itself. News Corp's Australian arm reported nearly $24 billion in revenue and $1.38 billion in profits over a decade, paying zero in income tax — a pattern shared by Santos, Transurban, and others across energy, infrastructure, and media. The ATO's transparency regime has made these arrangements visible to the public, yet visibility alone has proven insufficient to alte
News Corp's decade of zero tax in Australia despite $1.89B revenue
Billions in revenue, nothing to the government, entirely legal.
Mark
So News Corp paid zero tax for ten years straight. How is that even possible?
Mimi
They're using legal structures available to any multinational. Transfer pricing, debt financing, profit shifting—it all happens within the tax code. The ATO data shows it's happening; the law allows it.
Luke
But we should be careful here. The ATO notes that some of these companies pay zero tax for "perfectly good and legal reasons." We don't know News Corp's specific strategy from this data alone. We know the outcome, not the mechanism.
Mark
What about the other companies? Are they all doing the same thing?
Mimi
Different sectors use different tools. Energy companies like Santos use deductions and losses. Transurban uses debt financing. Singtel, which owns Optus, just doesn't declare profits here. But the effect is the same: billions in revenue, minimal or zero tax.
Luke
Though we should note Santos did pay $1.37 billion in petroleum resources rent tax over the decade. It's not paying nothing—it's paying nothing in income tax. That's an important distinction.
Mark
Why hasn't this changed? The transparency reports have been public since 2014-15.
Mimi
The rules haven't changed. Transparency alone doesn't alter the incentives. Companies will use whatever legal structures minimize their tax if the law permits it.
Luke
And we don't know what policy changes, if any, are being considered. The data is current to June 2025, but we don't have information about whether parliament is moving on this.
Mark
So what's the actual cost to Australia?
Mimi
News Corp alone would have paid tens of millions if it paid a standard corporate tax rate on its profits. Multiply that across all these companies and you're looking at billions in foregone revenue annually.
Luke
True, but we should be precise: we don't know what the counterfactual tax rate would be or what behavioral changes might occur if the law changed. We know what they paid; we're estimating what they might have paid under different rules.
El Pulso
- News Corp's Australian subsidiary earned $1.89 billion in revenue and declared over $300 million in profit in 2024-25 — its best year in a decade — and paid not one dollar in tax.
- The pattern is not an exception: across ten years and $23.9 billion in total revenue, News Corp's main Australian entity has never once contributed to the national tax base.
- Energy giants Santos and Ichthys LNG, toll road operator Transurban, and multinationals like Singtel and JBS form a broad cohort of billion-dollar earners that have similarly engineered their affairs to owe nothing.
- The contrast is jarring — BHP and Rio Tinto paid over $5 billion each, the major banks contributed billions more, while companies of comparable scale paid zero through entirely legal structures.
- Australia's corporate tax transparency initiative has succeeded in illuminating these arrangements, but a decade of public data has produced scrutiny without systemic change, leaving the mechanisms — transfer pricing, debt financing, accumulated losses — intact.
Each year, Australia's tax transparency data surfaces the same quiet paradox: corporations earning billions within a society's borders contribute nothing to its upkeep, not through fraud, but through the architecture of the law itself. News Corp's Australian arm reported nearly $24 billion in revenue and $1.38 billion in profits over a decade, paying zero in income tax — a pattern shared by Santos, Transurban, and others across energy, infrastructure, and media. The ATO's transparency regime has made these arrangements visible to the public, yet visibility alone has proven insufficient to alter them. What remains is an open question about whether a tax system that permits such outcomes still reflects the society it was designed to serve.
The Australian Tax Office's latest corporate tax transparency report has renewed a familiar and uncomfortable conversation: some of the country's largest companies are paying nothing in income tax, year after year, and doing so entirely within the law.
The most prominent case is News Corp's Australian subsidiary, News Australia Holdings. In 2024-25, the company recorded $1.89 billion in revenue and its highest annual profit in a decade — over $300 million — and paid zero tax. This was no aberration. Across the full ten years of ATO transparency reporting, News Australia Holdings has declared $23.9 billion in revenue and $1.38 billion in profits without contributing a cent in income tax. Two minor News Corp entities made token payments in earlier years, but the core operation has remained untouched.
News Corp is the most visible name on a long list. Santos reported $48.4 billion in revenue over the decade with just $221 million in declared profits and no income tax, though it did pay petroleum resources rent tax on exports. Transurban accumulated $27.6 billion in revenue and $520 million in profits across ten years — again, zero tax. Singtel paid nothing on $8 billion in Australian revenue. JBS, AGL, Energy Australia, and Mineral Resources round out a cohort spanning energy, infrastructure, telecommunications, and agriculture.
The contrast with companies that do pay is striking. BHP and Rio Tinto each contributed over $5 billion in tax on combined profits exceeding $52 billion. The major banks paid billions more. Woolworths, Coles, Qantas, and even the major tech companies collectively contributed hundreds of millions. The divergence is not about profitability alone — it is about the legal structures available to those who can afford to use them: transfer pricing, debt financing arrangements, and the carrying forward of accumulated losses.
What makes the News Corp case particularly pointed is the company's role in Australian public life. Its media holdings shape political discourse and public opinion at scale, yet its operations draw on the infrastructure, institutions, and educated workforce that tax revenue funds — without contributing to that revenue. The ATO's transparency program, introduced under Labor and initially resisted by the Coalition, has made these arrangements visible. A decade on, visibility has not translated into change, and the question of whether the rules themselves need rewriting remains unanswered.
The Australian Tax Office released its latest corporate tax transparency data this week, and the numbers tell a familiar story: some of Australia's largest and most profitable companies are paying nothing to the government, year after year, entirely within the law.
News Corp's Australian subsidiary, News Australia Holdings, sits at the top of this particular list. In the financial year ending June 2025, the company earned $1.89 billion in revenue and declared more than $300 million in profit—the highest annual profit it has reported in a decade. It paid zero dollars in tax. This was not an anomaly. For the past ten years, since the first corporate tax transparency reports were released for 2014-15, News Australia Holdings has paid no tax at all. Over that entire period, the company reported $23.9 billion in total revenue and $1.38 billion in profits. The only News Corp entities to contribute anything were a small investment company that paid $200,000 on $291 million in profits in 2017-18, and a pay TV financing arm that paid $8 million in 2015-16.
News Corp is not alone in this practice, though it may be the most prominent. The latest ATO data reveals a landscape where major corporations across multiple sectors have engineered their affairs to owe nothing to the Australian government. Energy and resource companies dominate the zero-tax ranks. Santos, the oil and gas producer, reported $5 billion in revenue in 2024-25 and claimed to have made no taxable profit, paying no income tax. Over the past decade, Santos has reported $48.4 billion in revenue against just $221 million in declared profits and zero income tax, though it did pay $1.37 billion in petroleum resources rent tax on its exports. Ichthys LNG, a Japanese-owned operation, paid nothing on $10.6 billion in revenue. Transurban, the toll road operator that has accumulated $27.6 billion in revenue over the past decade, managed to declare $520 million in profits during that time while paying not a single cent in tax. In 2024-25 alone, Transurban reported $2.9 billion in revenue, $2.6 million in taxable income, and again paid zero tax.
Other major corporations have joined this cohort. Optus's owner, Singtel, paid no tax on $8 billion in revenue. Mineral Resources, a Western Australian company, reported $4.8 billion in revenue with no declared profits and no tax. JBS, the multinational meat processor, paid nothing on $4.8 billion in revenue for the second consecutive year. AGL and Energy Australia, the power companies, used accumulated tax losses to avoid paying tax on $13 billion and $7 billion in revenue respectively.
The contrast with other major taxpayers is stark. Rio Tinto and BHP paid $5.2 billion and $5.3 billion in tax respectively on combined profits exceeding $52 billion. The Commonwealth Bank paid $3.8 billion; Westpac $2.7 billion; NAB $2.3 billion. Telstra contributed $776 million. Among retailers, Woolworths paid $622 million and Coles $414 million. Qantas, after paying only $8 million the previous year, paid $567 million in tax. The tech giants—Apple, Amazon, and others—paid $700 million in tax combined on nearly $43 billion in revenue.
News Corp's decade of zero tax payments occurs despite the company's substantial influence over Australian public discourse. The Murdoch family company, though headquartered in the United States, generates enormous revenue from Australian operations and wields considerable editorial power through its media holdings. Yet it contributes nothing to the tax base that funds the schools, hospitals, and infrastructure that enable its business to operate. The legal mechanisms that allow this—transfer pricing, debt financing structures, and other strategies available to multinational corporations—remain within the rules as written, even as they hollow out government revenue. The ATO's transparency initiative, begun under the Rudd-Gillard government and opposed by the Coalition at the time, has made these arrangements visible. What it has not done is change them.
Citas Notables
News Corp continues to make serious money in Australia while paying no tax— ATO corporate tax transparency data, 2024-25
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