In March, News Corp Australia told the Senate investigation into corporate tax avoidance that its "actual tax paid" in 2014 was $85.1 million.

"Our businesses are fully compliant with all applicable tax laws," a News Corp spokesman told The Australian Financial Review.

"We disclosed our tax affairs in detail to the Senate inquiry earlier this year, where we were commended for going 'above and beyond' in giving 'the most detailed of submissions."

The Tax Transparency report shows two News Corp companies, two Foxtel companies, a 21st Century Fox subsidiary as well as Ten Network and Nova Entertainment (both associated with Lachlan Murdoch) paid no tax.

Lachlan Murdoch's Nova Entertainment (Australia) escaped a tax obligation thanks in part to prior year tax losses while the struggling Ten Network of which Lachlan is a former chairman, also paid no tax.

APN News & Media, in which News Corp has a 15 per cent stake, was another non-taxpayer.

The other media companies with zero tax bills were Nine Entertainment, which had revenue of $1.97 billion, and BBC Worldwide Australia Holdings ($116 million revenue).


Fairfax Media, the publisher of the Financial Review, reported revenue of $1.65 billion, taxable income of $70 million and tax payable of $16 million, a tax rate of 23.1 per cent, just above the average rate for media companies.

The ATO figures relate only to tax payable for the 2014 year and do not include a $923 million tax refund paid to News Australia relating to a prior year (part of this was taxable, which took the net refund down to $839 million).

In May, News Corp confirmed that it was the only company in the Tax Office's "High Risk" category.

While News Corp Australia told the inquiry in March that its "actual tax paid" in 2014 was $85.1 million, in May, it revealed that this total was not just income tax and included $23.2 million in withholding tax paid on $265 million in interest payments to related News companies offshore.

This left a balance of $61.9 million as "actual tax paid", though News said, " Please also note that an effective tax rate is an accounting term based on accounting tax expense, rather than actual tax paid."

Almost all of the $61.9 million tax figure appears to be News Corp's half-share of the Foxtel partnership and its 61 per cent holding in the listed REA Group.

Four Foxtel companies, in which News has a 50 per cent interest, reported total revenue of $3 billion.


Of these, only Foxtel Holdings reported a taxable income ($101 million) together with XYZNetworks ($1.8 million). Tax payable was a total $30.6 million, with a tax rate of 30 per cent.

Elsewhere, two subsidiaries of 21st Century Fox, Shine Australia Holdings and Fox Filmed Entertainment Australia, reported combined revenue of $471 million and taxable income of $17 million. Shine had tax payable of $3 million, a tax rate of 17.5 per cent. Fox Filmed Entertainment paid no tax.

The listed REA Group, which is 61 per cent owned by News Corp, was the biggest taxpayer in the media sector, with sales of $401 million, taxable income of $243 million and tax payable of $62 million.

This produced a remarkable profit margin of 60.6 per cent and tax rate of 25.5 per cent.

Earlier this year Deputy Commissioner Mark Konza told the Senate inquiry that the only company in the ATO's Q1 high risk category (later identified as News Corp) was "under intensive review around particular aspects of their operation currently".

"It is about the history of their aggressive behaviour in tax over a period of time," he said.

"But, importantly, it is about transparency and willingness to be open with us. Historically, this particular taxpayer has made it quite clear that they have not had an interest in being open with us and discussing any of their affairs with us prior to their doing transactions.

"I understand that that attitude may be changing and there have been approaches to us recently to work with us to get out of that Q1."

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