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Industry segment

Last updated 12 December 2018

Australia’s largest corporations tend to operate in sectors of the economy that are characterised by a high degree of capital intensity and economies of scale. Different economic performance factors affect particular sectors of the economy at different points in the economic cycle. In particular, these cyclical factors have influenced the tax performance of the mining, energy and water segment in recent years.

Tax payable was again dominated by the banking, finance and investment segment in 2016–17. The mining, energy and water segment had the second largest share of tax payable, followed closely by the wholesale, retail and services segment. The share of tax payable attributable to the mining, energy and water segment was higher than in previous years due to the recovery in commodity prices. The manufacturing, construction and agriculture segment had a low share of tax payable relative to the number of companies operating in this industry.

Figure 17: Corporate entities, by industry segment, 2016–17

Entities in the population are grouped into five industry segments. This figure shows the number of corporate entities in each industry segment, the number with positive taxable income and tax payable amounts, and the amount of tax payable. In 2016–17, the banking, finance and investment segment contributed the highest amount of tax payable with only a small number of entities, and also performed well in terms of the proportion of entities that had taxable income and tax payable amounts. This was followed by the mining, energy and water segment with the second largest amount of tax payable, with a small number of entities. The wholesale, retail and services segment represented the largest segment of the population by count, and contributed the third largest share of tax payable. This was followed by manufacturing, construction and agriculture, then insurance in terms of tax payable.

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