Who's paying tax?; radio shake-up gains pace; cost of living crisis eases

Who's paying tax?; radio shake-up gains pace; cost of living crisis eases

News in brief

The Reserve Bank of Australia believes financial pressures on Australian households are easing, with the number of mortgage holders at risk of falling behind on repayments less than 1 per cent, a low not seen since 2022.

 

A mutual defence treaty between Australia and Papua New Guinea has been approved by PNG’s cabinet after a false start last month. The federal government welcomed the deal.

 

The shake-up in radio-land is gathering pace with Ciaran Davis, the veteran boss of ARN Media, the radio company that owns the KIIS and Pure Gold networks, stepping down after 16 years.

 

Elon Musk has become the first person to be worth half a trillion US dollars. He's now $US150 billion richer than number two, Larry Ellison, according to Forbes Rich List, after the share price of Tesla jumped four per cent on Wednesday.

 

Universal Music and Warner Music are nearing landmark AI licensing deals as record labels try to set the terms for how tech groups pay for music, according to the FT.  The talks have centred on how the labels license their songs for creating AI-generated tracks and for training large language models.

Fear-o-meter

The two key factors to come out of yesterday's release by the Australian Tax Office of collections data for the 2024 financial year is that the country relies heavily on the mining and energy companies, and offshore companies are still not paying enough tax.

 

Over half the company tax take, or $48.5 billion, was paid by mining and energy companies and it is the third year in a row that they have paid more tax than all other sectors combined.

 

Before getting too upset about companies paying no tax, there are reasons why – they may have made losses or are carrying forward losses. In fact, for the first time, more than 70 per cent of big businesses paid some tax.

 

As for the overseas companies, they should be paying more. Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Apple and Amazon collectively paid $650 million in tax for their Australian operations.

 

Streaming service Netflix paid no tax on $1.2 billion of total income. Tesla paid $27 million.

 

The ATO is aware of public opinion and said it continues to pay close attention to these companies to ensure they are paying the right amount of tax and that losses are not created through contrived schemes.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the importance of SMEs knowing their endgame, and the three different types of founders and entrepreneurs, outlined in Xero's 'It's Your Business' report.

 

"47% of Australian small businesses would classify themselves as a lifestyle entrepreneur. They want to architect a lifestyle that works for them. They want to run a small business, they want to have a business, but let them do the other things they love, which might be spending time with family, traveling, whatever it might be. And of course, you know, for anyone that lives in Australia, there's a pretty good reason why you want to maintain such an amazing lifestyle.

Your second category is ambitious achievers, about 30% are these. They're really business owners that are trying to usually form a legacy. Can they build a lasting business? Are they looking to go global? Are they really looking to set a mark in an industry that they really care about? 

 

And then you've got situational founders, which make up the other 23%. As an immigrant myself, I know many of these people, they come from another country, maybe they have no option and they've got to start a business and that is their way of making a living and then growing from it."

It's Friday, the 3^rd of October 2026. The three big miners – Rio Tinto, BHP and Fortescue Metals – pay the most corporate tax, while some companies, including Optus, Virgin Australia and CSL, pay zero. At least that’s what happened in the 2023-24 financial year, according to the Australian Tax Office. The big four banks paid a combined $10 billion, with Commonwealth Bank paying more than a third of that amount. Insurance Australia Group, owners of NRMA, paid just $9. AMP, TPG, Transurban and Domino’s all paid zero.

Greed-o-meter

City	2020 $	2025 $
Sydney	4.0	5.0
Perth	4.4	5.4
Hobart	4.5	5.4
Canberra	4.3	5.4
Melbourne	4.2	5.3
Brisbane	4.2	5.5
Adelaide	4.3	5.6

Forwarded from a friend? Sign up to our daily newsletter

How much more is your takeaway coffee now, compared to five years ago? Nine newspapers have analysed data from payments platform Square to determine what the humble flat white will cost you around the country, compared to 2020.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

Source: Nine newspapers