News Corp, Santos, Kogan paid $0 in tax. But sure, let’s blame ‘government spending’ - Greg Jericho

The Coalition want to cut already-underfunded social and health services, while staying silent on the corporations paying nothing

Screengrab - News Corp Australia tabloids

One thing you grasp very quickly when writing on economics is that the economy and the entire system surrounding it is not made for people. At least not people who work most of the jobs, or are unemployed, or struggling due to health or disabilities, or elderly, or trying to buy a home, or rent, or in essence make up almost all of our society. It’s made for corporations and those who own and run those corporations, and much of the reporting is done by the same and for the same.

For example, the day after this year’s budget in May, The Australian ran with the headline on its front page, “77BN TAX GRAB”. The figure was derived by adding the collective impact of the changes to tax on capital gains and trusts out to 2036-37, which would be funny were it not so absurd.

It wasn’t a shock, because News Corp loves to decry any increases in tax.

On a completely different note, last week the ATO released the Corporate Tax transparency report for 2024-25.

It’s a fun little report that lists the amount of tax paid by every company with an income over $100m.

Here’s the table of how much tax has been paid each year by News Australia Holdings Pty Ltd:

Yep. Zero. Ok, so they have brought in nearly $24bn income, but as News Corp journalists are always at pains to tell anyone, company tax is levied on profits. Harder to explain is the nearly $1.3bn in taxable income that also led to $0 tax.

Others will say that it’s a holding company and those often pay no tax. Yes, but Nine Entertainment Co. Holdings Ltd paid $76.7m in tax in 2024-25. And sure, it was off the back of $2.27bn income and just $290.5m in taxable income, but at least it was something.

News Corp is just really clever, I guess.

Like with most things in our economy, this result is not due to fraud or malfeasance – it’s the system. A system where the Santos CEO gets to speak at the National Press Club, boast about how the gas industry is so great for communities, suggest we need more gas and demand “a stable taxation and regulatory regime”. The same CEO who at last year’s annual gas industry conference compared Victoria to North Korea and said he’d prefer to invest in PNG than Australia.

And all the while Santos Pty Ltd has gone 11 years without paying a dollar in company tax:

Zero dollars every year? That sure is stable! And not bad work by the accountants given the Santos 2024-25 annual report notes “$1.2b net profit after tax”.

Even at a smaller level we see the same skewed system at work.

Ruslan Kogan, founder and CEO of Kogan Ltd, decided after budget the nation needed to hear his views on things and so posted a ranting video online.

He told us that he has no problem paying tax, saying “when it comes to taxes, I don’t care if it’s a 90 per cent tax, as long as it’s actually making the country better for our children and giving us a better place to live in the future”.

Good point, well made!

Except in 2024-25, Kogan Australia Pty Ltd paid $0.00 in company tax – the same amount it paid in 2023-24 and 2022-23 and 2021-22:

So no, not quite 90% tax.

In 2024-25 the company made a gross profit of $168.4m.

Kogan suggested, “The Aussie culture has been all about working hard, taking risks, having a crack, and you’re going to be incentivising the wrong sort of people to come here.” What type of people? Those, who, in Kogan’s mind think, “You know what? There’s some great opportunity for some really sick NDIS scams; there’s a really great welfare system; that’s the sort of country that I want to come to.”

This said after a budget that cut the NDIS by around 12 per cent in real terms, and in a nation where people on Jobseeker die up to 10 more than those not on welfare:

Kogan was reported glowingly on News Corp’s news.com.au as having an “epic rant” and on the old Sky News as being a “dire warning”.

Perhaps it is worth reminding people that in 2020, Kogan Australia was fined $350,000 for making false or misleading representations about (and yes, this is bitterly ironic) a “tax time sales promotion”, in which, the ACCC found “consumers were not receiving a genuine 10 per cent discount as promised”.

Ah well. That’s the system, I guess. Sometimes you get caught, and … well life carries on. Your voice remains worthy of hearing because wealth and company ownership sways all.

And then last week we had interest rates rise for the fourth time this year. The conservative media and opposition parties blamed government spending. The Shadow Treasurer Tim Wilson told us what he would cut: NDIS, aged care, childcare.

No talk of getting companies to pay some tax or even acknowledging that in a budget there is both a spending and revenue column.

Nah. That’s the system, you see.