The 55 Australian millionaires who paid no tax

Fifty-five Australians who made more than $1 million each have managed to not pay income tax.

The 55 millionaires combined generated almost $130 million in income, donated more than $10 million to charity and collected $33,553 in government pensions.

But figures from the Australian Taxation Office found that after spending $42.5 million on managing their tax affairs - or almost $750,000 per person - they ended up paying not a cent in income tax.

Their taxable income was minus $12.9 million.

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It is not just millionaires finding ways through the tax system to reduce their taxable income to zero. The tax office said another 740 people who earned between $180,000 and $1 million also managed to avoid handing over cash to the tax man.

A spokesman for the tax office said there were a range of legitimate reasons why millionaires and other high tax individuals could end up not owing tax. They included tax losses generated through a poorly performing business or losses incurred in previous years.

However, the 55 are likely to have their tax affairs examined carefully.

"A wealthy taxpayer who does not pay tax is more likely to attract our attention and be subject to further scrutiny to ensure they are complying with their tax obligations," the spokesman said.

The 55 millionaires did far better than 708,000 Australians who, in the 2012-13 financial year, declared incomes of less than $6000.

These people, almost all of them part-time workers, ended up paying $15.6 million in tax. And they paid $44 million to get tax advice.

There were 9155 people who declared more than $1 million in income through the year and paid tax on that income.

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Combined, they earned more than $20.2 billion in income including $2.8 billion in capital gains and $212 million in termination payments.

They paid $8.8 billion in net tax. The annual statistics from the tax office reveal the fiscal hole negative gearing will punch in Federal coffers in coming years.

Through 2012-13 Australians lost a combined $5.4 billion on their 2.8 million rental properties. West Australians lost $609 million.

The loss was well down on the $8 billion recorded in 2011-12 that was accrued on 100,000 fewer properties. But the improvement was because of the fall in official interest rates through 2012-13.

 

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