• The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has revealed its performance in the last financial year.
• The figures reveal income tax refunds surged to more than $55 billion, with tax paid dropping by around 5% to around $405 billion.
• The tax office also settled with more than 100 multinationals, eventually collecting $1.1 billion less than it was owed.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

In a true example of the shoe being on the other foot, the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has opened up its own books to the public for the last financial year.

While multinationals are always a keen focus, it’s clear from the latest figures that large companies continue to get out of paying their fair share.

Due to the complex nature of their operations, the tax office often elects to settle with large businesses rather than spend its time pursuing every last dime.

Last year, it followed this strategy with 112 public and multinational businesses – and appeared to come off second best.

The businesses collectively ended up paying $1.86 billion on the $2.93 billion the ATO figured they actually owed. While it’s not a bad chunk of change to add to public coffers, these 112 businesses effectively managed to give themselves a 36% tax cut by stonewalling the tax office. In the ATO’s defence, it does employ retired federal judges to decide when settling is the best, or only, course of action against well-heeled legal teams and cleverly structured tax arrangements.

Google, for example, eventually agreed to pay $481 million as part of a major deal struck last year to settle a decade of tax disputes with the ATO.

“They join the likes of Microsoft, Apple and Facebook who have all publicly stated that they have settled their tax affairs with the ATO and we welcome their transparency,” the ATO said in a statement at the time.

Curiously, it was privately owned and wealthy groups – those more likely to be running large companies with global footprints – that managed to match that tenacity. In 134 cases, these groups eventually paid just $101 million on a tax bill of $204 million, or less than half.

Evidently, they’re also better resourced and better equipped to dispute the ATO’s claims than most.

Just 20 individuals and 91 small businesses bothered doing the same, despite there being far more of both in Australia. Zero not-for-profits meanwhile were bothered – or had the resources – to do so.

Regardless, there are still tax dollars going missing from plenty of places.

In total, Australian individuals and businesses owe $34.1 billion to the tax office, up from $26.6 billion the year before.

Much of that increase can be attributed to small businesses, who owe more than $21 billion of that figure.

Australians pocketed some serious refunds last year.

According to the ATO’s figures, Australians received $55.3 billion in income tax returns in the last financial year, up from just $43.1 billion the year before.

Throw in excises and activity statements, and total refunds hit $132.3 billion, up 23.4% year on year.

As refunds soared, it’s no wonder the total tax base actually shrunk by about 5%, with Australians paying just shy of $405 billion.

In a sign of the times, the number of working holidaymakers dropped dramatically, from 96,000 to less than 2,000.

With few international workers likely to enter Australia this financial year, the ATO may be facing even more shrinking come next July.

Unless multinationals start coughing up, that is.

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