The 1,131 foreign-owned entities in 2016–17 make up over half (54%) of the corporate transparency population and account for around one-fifth (22%) of tax payable. Australian public entities account for 28% of the population (590) and 72% of tax payable, while Australian private entities account for 18% of the population (388) and 6% of tax payable.
Figure 18: Corporate entities, by ownership segment, 2016–17
Figure 19: Tax payable – corporate entities, by ownership segment, 2016–17
Corporate sector entities and groups
There are approximately 1.3 million companies operating in Australia and they reported total income tax payable of $74 billion in 2016–17. The 2,109 corporate tax entities reported in the transparency report represent over 62% of total corporate income tax payable.
However, these entities are not necessarily standalone entities and are sometimes part of a group of companies.
As shown in Figure 20, the 2016–17 corporate transparency population consists of entities that belong to 1,645 unique economic groups, as well as 209 standalone entities. The majority of economic groups in the corporate transparency population have linked entities outside the scope of this measure.
Figure 20: Corporate transparency population groups and entities, 2016–17