Tax office data shows slight improvement in number of Australia’s highest earners who pay no income tax

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Forty-eight Australians who earned more than $1m in the 2014-15 financial year paid no income tax.

Nineteen reduced their taxable income to zero by claiming a combined $20.2m for the “cost of managing tax affairs” – nearly $1.1m each.

Nine claimed gifts or donations worth $27.5m to help them do so.

New data from the Australian Tax Office, released on Wednesday, shows the political fight about who pays their “fair share” of tax in Australia is unlikely to go away.

It shows Australia now has 11,854 taxpayers earning more than $1m, the vast majority of whom have paid some sort of tax on their taxable income.

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But, in the 2014-15 financial year, 46 millionaires claimed to have taxable income below $6,001, one claimed to have taxable income between $6,001 and $10,000, and another claimed to have taxable income between $10,001 and $18,200, putting them all below the tax-free threshold.

None of them paid the Medicare levy.

The tax office says the “cost of managing tax affairs” includes the cost of getting tax advice from a registered tax agent, barrister or solicitor, the cost of preparing and lodging tax returns and activity statements, and the cost of court appeals.

The data shows a slight improvement in the number of Australia’s highest earners who pay no income tax.

In the 2013-14 financial year, there were 56 millionaires who paid no income tax, with 27 claiming a combined $46.7m for the cost of managing their tax affairs, nearly $1.7m each.

The ATO stats also show the number of landlords with an interest in six or more rental properties has grown quickly in the last three years, up 8.6%, from 17,671 to 19,198 individuals.

Map: average net rental loss by postcode, 2014-15

Landlords with an interest in five rental properties have grown even faster, up 9.8%, from 16,600 to 18,231. Those with an interest in three or four properties have also grown quickly, up 7% each.

By comparison, the largest number of landlords are those with an interest in a single rental property, at 1.5 million. Their number increased by just 2% over the last three years.

Malcolm Turnbull’s electorate includes the two richest postcodes in Australia, according to the ATO stats.

The 2027 postcode, which includes the Sydney suburbs of Darling Point, Edgecliff, Rushcutters Bay and Point Piper, has the highest average taxable income of $189,293 per person.

Map: median taxable income by postcode, 2014-15

The 2030 postcode, including the suburbs of Dover Heights, Rose Bay North, Vaucluse and Watsons Bay, has an average taxable income of $185,684 per person.

Seven of the top 10 postcodes with the highest average taxable income are in New South Wales.



The postcode with the lowest average taxable income is 2387 in NSW. It falls in the electorate of Parkes, represented by the Nationals MP Mark Coulton, and includes the suburbs Bulyeroi and Rowena.

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According to the ATO, there were 132 individuals living there in 2014-15, making an average loss of $8,832 per person that year.

The postcode with the second-lowest average taxable income is 4423 in Queensland. It falls in the electorate of Maranoa, represented by the Liberal Nationals MP David Littleproud, and includes the suburbs Teelba and Glenmorgan.

There were 128 individuals living there in 2014-15, claiming an average taxable income of $16,862 per person.

Seven of the 10 postcodes with the lowest average taxable income are in Queensland.

The ATO stats show surgeons, anaesthetists and medicine specialists are the top three occupations by average income.



Australia’s 3,790 surgeons had an average taxable income of $377,044 in 2014-15, while 3,178 anaesthetists had an average taxable income of $341,041, and 7,964 medicine specialists had an average taxable income of $281,547.

Financial dealers, psychiatrists, other medical practitioners, judicial and legal professionals, mining engineers, chief executives and managing directors, and engineering managers, completed the top occupations by average income.