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Demographics of large corporate groups

How the demographics of large corporate groups in Australia significantly impact revenue.

Last updated 1 October 2026

About large corporate groups

Large corporate groups make a significant contribution to the Australian economy and play a critical role in the tax system. They're also important in creating community confidence in our tax system. Confidence is gained directly by their tax contribution, and indirectly because their compliance underpins willing participation in other taxpayer segments.

Definition of a large corporate group

We define a large corporate group as one with a group turnover greater than $250 million. There are approximately 2,216 large corporate groups with nearly 9,000 income tax reporting entities in Australia. This represents around 39,000 active companies. These groups include Australian public, Australian private and majority foreign-owned businesses.

Figure 1: Large corporate groups – ownership, 2024–25

Of the 2,216 corporate groups, 28% (617) are Australian owned private companies, 25% (563) are Australian owned public companies, and 47% (1,036) are majority foreign-owned.

Figure 2: Large corporate groups – income tax lodgments, 2024–25

Of the 8,776 income tax returns, 21% (1,835) were lodged by Australian owned private companies, 33% (2,914) were lodged by Australian owned public companies, and 46% (4,027) were lodged by majority foreign-owned companies.Figure 3: Large corporate groups – total business income, 2024–25

Of the $3.1 trillion of total business income: majority foreign-owned businesses accounted for 42% ($1,318.7 billion), Australian owned private companies accounted for 7% ($205.0 billion), and Australian owned public companies accounted for 51% ($1,602.8 billion).

Figure 4: Large corporate groups – total profits, 2024–25

Of the $373.1 billion in total profits, majority foreign-owned businesses accounted for 36% ($135.4 billion), Australian owned private companies accounted for 6% ($22.8 billion), and Australian owned public companies accounted for 58% ($214.9 billion).

How much tax large corporate groups pay

The amount of tax paid by large corporate groups has declined in the last 2 years to 2024–25, primarily due to a broad decline in mining profits – especially iron ore, coal and lithium prices. Oil and gas prices have also been volatile, with income tax paid declining in 2023–24 but some slight growth in 2024–25.

Long-term trends in large market corporate tax typically reflect:

  • economic conditions
  • commodity prices including iron ore, coal, oil and gas
  • fluctuations in the Australian dollar (AUD).

Despite recent volatility in oil and gas prices, tax payments from the industry have risen significantly over a 3-year period, supported by our early interventions to ensure multinationals pay the right amount of tax.

Figure 5: Large corporate groups – contribution to tax revenue, 2019–20 to 2024–25

Refer to Table 1 following.

 This data is presented in table format in Table 1.

Table 1: Contribution to tax revenue from 2019–20 to 2024–25 for large corporate groups

Income tax payable ($b)

2019–20

2020–21

2021–22

2022–23

2023–24

2024–25

Large diversified miners

11.5

14.9

23.1

21.0

18.7

11.7

Oil and gas

1.3

0.6

1.4

12.0

10.4

10.6

Other mining, energy and water

12.1

16.6

18.0

22.3

19.3

14.8

Major banks

9.2

8.4

8.4

9.9

10.0

10.4

Other financial services

6.4

7.4

8.7

7.3

8.5

10.4

Wholesale, retail and services

12.5

15.1

17.3

18.4

19.4

20.7

Manufacturing, construction and agriculture

3.7

4.0

5.6

4.8

6.5

7.1

Total reported

56.6

67.1

82.6

95.6

92.7

85.7

The number of large corporate groups in the Australian tax system is comparatively small, yet the impact they have on revenue is significant. The groups contribute a significant proportion to overall corporate income tax collections.

Figure 6: Large corporate groups – contribution to tax revenue, and concentration of tax contribution 2024–25

• In 2024–25 there were 2,216 large corporate groups, each with a turnover above $250 million, that collectively generated $3.1 trillion in total business income and $85.7 billion of the $139.2 billion in corporate income tax reported. • The tax contribution from these 2,216 large corporate groups is equivalent to around 62% of all corporate income tax reported and 14% of total ATO tax collections. • The largest 10 corporate groups reported $27.7 billion or 20% of all corporate income tax reported. • The largest 100 corporate groups reported $56.4 billion or 41% of all corporate income tax reported.

While Australian public businesses only make up 25% of these 2,216 large corporate groups, they pay 57% of the corporate income tax, against 51% of the gross income, for this group. This is driven by the significant profits earned by a relatively small number of very large Australian-owned groups. Once these companies are excluded, the overall performance of other Australian public companies, private companies and majority foreign-owned companies are relatively similar.

Figure 7: Large corporate groups – ownership and tax contribution, 2024–25

Of the $85.7 billion tax reported, majority foreign-owned businesses accounted for 37% ($31.9 billion), Australian-owned private companies accounted for 6% ($4.8 billion), and Australian owned public companies account for 57% ($49.0 billion).

Large corporate groups are involved in a diverse range of sectors across the economy. Those in the Banking, finance and investment, and Mining, energy and water industries:

  • are less than one-quarter (24%) of all large corporate groups
  • earn more than one-third (36%) of business income
  • contribute around two-thirds (64%) of large corporate income tax.

Figure 8: Large corporate groups – industry demographics (income tax lodgments), 2024–25

Of the 8,776 income tax returns lodged by large corporate groups: 18% are manufacturing, construction and agriculture, 7% are mining, energy and water, 17% are banking, finance and investment, 5% are insurance, and 53% are wholesale, retail and services.

Figure 9: Large corporate groups – industry demographics (business income), 2024–25

Of the $3.1 trillion total business income: 15% is from manufacturing, construction and agriculture, 20% is from mining, energy and water, 16% is from banking, finance and investment, 6% is from insurance, and 43% came from wholesale, retail and services.

We have seen a slight increase in the total business income (TBI) and tax reported by the Wholesale, retail and services industry (WRS). The increase was predominantly driven by 2 of the WRS industry segments which included:

  • Professional, scientific and technical services
  • Transport, postal and warehousing.

The strong performance relates to some of the large entities in the airline industry returning to tax payable after utilising carry forward losses from COVID-19 affected years. However, the future TBI and tax reported may be impacted by jet fuel prices, flight cancellations and diversions as a result of the war in the Persian Gulf.

Figure 10: Large corporate groups – industry demographics (tax reported), 2024–25

Of the $85.7 billion tax reported: 43% came from mining, energy and water, 21% from banking, finance and investment, 4% from insurance, 24% from wholesale, retail and services, and 8% from manufacturing, construction and agriculture.

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