News Australia paid no tax on $310m as REA outpaid Google and Nine

The gap a property portal opened up

REA Group, a company that lists houses for sale, paid $246.9 million in Australian corporate tax in 2024-25, according to the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) Corporate Tax Transparency Report released on 1 October 2026.^[1] Google paid $89.5 million, Nine Entertainment paid $76.7 million, Amazon paid $42.3 million and Netflix paid $8.4 million, a combined $216.9 million, roughly $30 million less than REA alone.^[1]

Three other names in the media and advertising trade also paid no tax, B&T's analysis of the data shows: Ten Network on $436.9 million of total income, JCDecaux Australia on $465.4 million and Dentsu Australia on $220.9 million.^[5]

Who paid what

Why companies can have nil tax payable

The ATO says nil tax payable generally reflects carried-forward losses or offsets and does not imply wrongdoing.^[2] The transparency report does not include operating profits, tax losses or offsets, and does not reflect audit or compliance activity. News Australia declared $310.4 million in taxable income on $1.89 billion of total income and returned a nil tax payable.^[1]

Tax paid as a share of taxable income

The transparency report discloses total income rather than accounting profit; the useful comparison is taxable income to tax paid, the rate a company pays on what it has formally declared as income to the ATO. REA Group paid 27.7 per cent of its declared taxable income in tax. Google paid 27 per cent and Nine paid 26.4 per cent.^[1] All three sit close to the 30 per cent corporate rate.

Netflix paid $8.4 million on $1.41 billion of Australian income, 0.6 per cent of its total revenue figure, though the report does not disclose Netflix's taxable income, making a profit-rate comparison impossible from these numbers alone.^[1] Amazon reported $3.83 billion in Australian income and paid $42.3 million, 1.1 per cent of revenue, with taxable income also undisclosed.^[1]

Tax figures for Australian media and ad buyers

The report covers large entities, those with total income above $100 million or with petroleum resource rent tax payable. Across that group, 73 per cent paid income tax, the highest share since transparency reporting began.^[3] The cohort collectively paid $87.5 billion. Assistant Treasurer Dr Daniel Mulino said that paying the right amount of tax is a legal obligation and a part of supporting the services and infrastructure that Australians rely on every day.^[3]

The companies that take the largest share of Australian advertising budgets can differ from those writing the largest cheques to the ATO. Google took $2.07 billion in Australian income and paid $89.5 million in tax. REA Group took $1.56 billion and paid $246.9 million. REA Group paid more tax on less Australian income than Google. The next ATO transparency release is expected in late 2027, covering the 2025-26 financial year.