Why we built TaxTransparencyCode.info

Australians pay a lot of tax.

Workers pay through PAYG before their wages even hit their bank accounts. Small and medium businesses pay company tax, payroll tax, GST, super, workers compensation, insurance, compliance costs and rising wages. Local business owners also carry the stress, risk and paperwork that come with employing people in Australia.

Meanwhile, many large corporate groups can operate across borders, shift costs, use related-party structures, and report outcomes that ordinary Australians could never manage.

That does not always mean illegality.

But it does mean the system is tilted.

TaxTransparencyCode.info was built to show that tilt in plain view.

The Government's Own Data Tells the Story

The ATO says individuals paid $329.5 billion in income tax in 2023–24. That was 52.2% of the tax revenue collected by the ATO. Companies paid $144.6 billion, or 22.7%. GST made up $85.6 billion, or 13.6%.

The ATO's large corporate tax transparency report showed $95.7 billion of income tax paid by large corporate entities in 2023–24.

That means ordinary people remain the biggest and easiest source of revenue.

• They cannot shift their wage offshore.
• They cannot restructure a payslip through a tax haven.
• They cannot tell the ATO that this year is not a good year to pay.

PAYG workers are collected from first.

Small and medium businesses are chased hard.

Large global structures get complexity, advice, lobby groups and time.

That is the imbalance this site exists to expose.

The Cost of Government Keeps Rising

The pressure on taxpayers is not easing.

ABS data shows total taxation revenue across all levels of Australian government reached $839.0 billion in 2024–25. That was up $37.4 billion from the year before. It was also equal to 30.2% of GDP. In 2015–16, total taxation revenue was $463.7 billion and 27.9% of GDP.

That is a huge rise in less than a decade.

The Parliamentary Budget Office has also warned that gross debt is expected to reach $1.1 trillion in 2027–28, or about $37,000 per person. It expects gross debt to pass $1.2 trillion during 2029–30.

The same budget office says personal income tax is the largest tax base and is projected to rise as a share of the economy. It projects personal income tax will make up 53% of total Commonwealth revenue by 2035–36. Company tax is projected to sit at a much lower share.

That is the road Australia is on.

More government.

More debt.

More reliance on workers.

More pressure on local businesses.

At some point, the system starts eating the people who fund it.

Australian-owned Business Is Being Squeezed

Australian-owned businesses are not only competing with each other.

They are competing with global giants, foreign-owned groups, online platforms, imported supply chains, rising energy costs, growing regulation and a government machine that keeps needing more money.

A local business has fewer places to hide.

It pays Australian wages. It deals with Australian compliance. It often banks in Australia, leases in Australia, stores goods in Australia and serves Australian customers from Australian premises.

When costs rise, that business cannot move its head office to a low-tax country. It cannot shift brand fees offshore. It cannot lean on a global parent. It must either raise prices, cut staff, automate, outsource or close.

That is why tax transparency matters.

A country cannot keep punishing the businesses that stay, hire and pay here while making it easy for offshore structures to extract Australian dollars.

The Data Was Public, but Not Public-friendly

The ATO publishes the corporate tax transparency data.

That matters. Credit should be given for the release itself.

But publishing data is not the same as making it useful.

For years, this information has sat in government download areas, spreadsheets and CSV files. A determined researcher could find it. A journalist could work with it. A tax professional could understand it.

But the average Australian could not open a simple website, search a company, compare years and see the pattern.

That is the gap we closed.

TaxTransparencyCode.info turns hard-to-use public files into a public search tool.

That may sound simple. But simple access changes the power balance.

Once citizens can search the data, they no longer need to wait for government, lobbyists or selected media stories to frame the issue for them.

They can see the pattern themselves.

This Was a Government Own Goal

In our view, this data release was an own goal for the bureaucracy.

The system likely expected a limited release to calm public concern. It gave people a narrow window into large company tax outcomes. It showed enough to say, “We are being transparent.”

But the same window now lets Australians see something uncomfortable.

• They can see which companies earn vast income here.
• They can see which industries carry the tax load.
• They can see repeated nil-tax outcomes.
• They can compare foreign-owned groups with Australian companies.
• They can ask why workers and local businesses remain the easy target.

That is why this data must stay public.

And it must become easier to use, not harder.

No government should be allowed to bury public-interest tax data behind poor access, awkward files or weak promotion.

This Is Not Anti-business

This site is not anti-business.

Australia needs profitable companies. It needs investment. It needs mining, banking, retail, farming, manufacturing, logistics, technology, construction and services.

Many large companies pay huge amounts of tax. That should be shown as well.

The problem is not profit.

The problem is extraction without fair contribution.

A fair tax system should reward companies that build in Australia, employ in Australia and pay in Australia. It should not keep leaning on workers and local business while complex global groups treat Australia as a market to harvest.

That is the line.

What We Want Australians to Ask

This site is built to inspire better questions.

Not slogans.

Not blind anger.

Questions.

• Which companies earn the most income in Australia?
• Which companies pay the most tax?
• Which companies pay no tax?
• Which companies show the same pattern year after year?
• Which industries carry the country?
• Which industries extract from the country?
• Which companies are Australian-owned?
• Which companies send profits offshore?
• Which laws make that possible?
• Which politicians will fix it?

The data does not answer every question.

But it opens the door.