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Population overview

An overview of ownership, industry segment and exits from the population.

Last updated 9 November 2023

There are 2,713 corporate entities in the 2021–22 corporate transparency population, with tax payable of $83.8 billion. Compared to 2020–21, this represents a net increase of 245 entities (9.9%) and an increase in tax payable of approximately $15.2 billion (22.2%).

Figure 1 shows a relatively steady corporate transparency population growth over the last 5 years. The growth is caused by more corporations exceeding the reporting income thresholds each year.

Figure 1: Corporate tax transparency population, growth over 5 years

This column graph shows the 5-year growth in the transparency population to 2021–22. Growth has been relatively consistent over the last 5 years, from 2,214 entities in 2017–18 to 2,713 entities in 2021–22.

Ownership

Foreign-owned entities accounted for 55.1% of the corporate transparency population in 2021–22, while Australian public entities and Australian private entities accounted for 21.7% and 23.1% of the population respectively (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Corporate entities by ownership segment, 2021–22  

This chart shows that there were 2,713 entities in the corporate tax transparency population in 2021–22. They include 627 Australian private entities, 590 Australian public entities, and 1,496 foreign-owned entities.

Industry segment

Wholesale, Retail and Services (WRS) is the largest industry segment at 1,458 entities or 53.7% of the corporate tax transparency population, followed by:

  • Manufacturing, Construction and Agriculture (MCA) at 613 or 22.6%
  • Banking, Finance and Investment (BFI) at 298 or 11.0%
  • Mining, Energy and Water (MEW) at 273 or 10.1%
  • Insurance (ISR) at 71 or 2.6%.

Exits from the population

In 2021–22, 260 entities exited the population, 505 entities were new entrants, and 2,208 entities were part of last year's population.

Entities may exit the population because they:

  • restructured or joined a tax consolidated group during the year (or both)
  • reported income below the transparency thresholds
  • had not yet lodged or had lodged a company tax return that was not processed by the cut-off date for the report (1 September 2023)
  • were not required to lodge a company tax return due to deregistration.

See Figure 3 below for the reasons for entities exiting the population this year.

We follow up entities that don't lodge returns as part of our non-lodgment program.

The number of entities that exited the transparency population due to a drop in income is consistent with a normal level of 'churn' in the population over recent years.

Entities that fail to lodge are subject to lodgment penalties and compliance action.

Figure 3: Exits from the corporate transparency population – entire population

This chart shows that in 2021–22, 260 entities from 2020–21 exited the corporate tax transparency population. Of these, 166 reported income below the income thresholds, 69 joined a consolidated group, 22 had not yet lodged, lodged late or were not yet processed and 3 were not required to lodge.


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