CANBERRA: Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, one of the most prominent supporters of the Turnbull government’s proposed big business tax cut, presides over a company that hasn’t paid corporate tax for close to 10 years. The period roughly coincides with Mr Joyce’s tenure at the helm of Australia’s flag carrier. Not one of Australia’s biggest airlines has paid corporate tax since at least 2013, including Virgin and its subsidiary Tigerair, Etihad, Emirates and Qatar. Each one of those companies has sold billions of dollars worth of tickets in Australia. When asked for an explanation, both Qantas and Virgin pointed the ABC to their historical losses and the entirely legitimate use of Australia’s tax laws that allow them to offset those losses against future profits indefinitely. Both companies were at pains to point out that, notwithstanding their zero corporate tax liabilities, they had continued to collect and pay departure taxes, fuel and alcohol excises, payroll tax, GST and FBT. Presumably that’s what the Etihad spokesman was alluding to in his statement to the ABC. Etihad is fully compliant with all Australian tax requirements, and has paid all the taxes it is obligated to do so under Australian law.” At a time when Australian households have seen their electricity prices soar, the country’s leading energy retailer, EnergyAustralia hasn’t been paying corporate tax. EnergyAustralia paid no corporate tax for the decade to 2016. For the three years to June 2016, EnergyAustralia’s 1.7 million electricity and gas customers across eastern Australia helped it record $24 billion worth of income on which no tax was paid. An EnergyAustralia spokesperson said the company’s performance, “reflects how the power-generation sector is underpinned by assets that were built last century”. Since 2006, EnergyAustralia has written down the value of its assets by $1.9 billion.” Ten years after the global financial crisis – which they are largely responsible for creating some of the world’s most prominent investment banks are collecting tidy sums of income in Australia and not paying corporate tax.
