Key Highlights

  • Petroleum resource rent tax payable was $1,872.8 million, up 26.3%.
  • The number of PRRT payers increased from 16 to 21.
  • Large-company income tax payable fell 8.6% to $87.5 billion.
  • PRRT is a separate profits-based tax on certain petroleum projects.

Australia's offshore and onshore gas producers paid noticeably more resource rent tax in 2024–25. The ATO's latest corporate tax transparency data shows petroleum resource rent tax (PRRT) payable rose 26.3% to $1,872.8 million, and the number of entities paying it climbed from 16 to 21. The rise lands while overall big-company tax payable fell, which makes PRRT one of the few lines in the report heading upwards.

That contrast matters as debate over how Australia taxes its gas resources continues, and as the federal budget leans on resource-sector Revenue more broadly.

What the transparency report shows

The ATO's corporate tax transparency report for 2024–25 covers 4,299 entities. Combined income tax payable across those entities was $87.5 billion, down 8.6% on the previous year.

Total income reported by the group rose 1.9% to $3,342.2 billion, but Taxable Income fell 9.9% to $329.2 billion. About 27% of the entities paid no income tax.

Against that softer backdrop, PRRT payable was $1,872.8 million, up 26.3%. On those figures, the previous year's PRRT payable would have been roughly $1.48 billion, a calculation derived from the published percentage rather than a separately reported number.

PRRT is reported separately from company income tax, so it sits alongside rather than inside the $87.5 billion figure.

More payers, but a lower average bill

The number of PRRT payers rose from 16 to 21, an increase of about 31%. That is faster growth than the 26.3% lift in the amount payable.

Dividing the totals gives a rough sense of what that means. In 2024–25, average PRRT payable per payer works out at about $89.2 million. Using the implied prior-year figure of about $1.48 billion across 16 payers, the average was about $92.7 million.

In other words, the collection grew because more projects or entities moved into a PRRT-paying position, not because the typical bill got bigger. These averages are simple divisions and will hide large differences between individual projects.

The transparency report does not explain why individual entities started paying. Possible factors generally include projects using up accumulated deductions, changes in production and prices, and the effect of earlier law changes, but the data alone does not show which applied.

How PRRT works

PRRT is a profits-based tax on petroleum projects, levied at 40% of a project's taxable profit. It applies to offshore projects and, since 2012, to onshore projects as well. That is long-standing law.

Because it is aimed at profit rather than production volume, a project generally pays nothing until its assessable receipts exceed its deductible expenditure. Unused deductions can be carried forward, and some categories have historically been uplifted over time. That design is why a project can produce gas for years before paying any PRRT.

PRRT paid is generally deductible for company income tax purposes. That means the two taxes interact, and the headline PRRT number understates the full picture of what a producer pays to government.

In 2023 Parliament legislated changes that cap the deductions an LNG project can use in a year, generally at 90% of its assessable receipts, with the excess carried forward. Those rules are enacted law. Whether they contributed to the 2024–25 increase is not something the transparency figures by themselves establish, and any link should be treated as a possibility rather than a finding.

Hypothetical example: how the 40% rate applies

Hypothetical example: a petroleum project earns $1,000 million in assessable receipts in a year and has $700 million of deductible expenditure available, with no carried-forward amounts.

Its taxable profit is $1,000 million minus $700 million, or $300 million. At the 40% PRRT rate, the PRRT payable is $120 million.

Now suppose the same project had $950 million of deductions available and the 90% cap applied. It could use only $900 million in that year, leaving taxable profit of $100 million and PRRT of $40 million. The unused $50 million would generally be carried forward.

The figures are illustrative only and simplify rules that are considerably more complex in practice, including Transfer Pricing for integrated gas projects.

Where PRRT sits in the bigger picture

Even after the rise, PRRT is small next to company income tax. At $1,872.8 million, it equals a little over 2% of the $87.5 billion in income tax payable reported by the 4,299 large entities.

The resources sector already dominates the main income tax line. The mining, energy and water sector accounted for 41.1% of tax payable, or $35.9 billion.

That concentration cuts both ways for the budget. Encouraging Commodity prices lift collections, but a fall in prices or profits can pull them down quickly, as the 9.9% drop in taxable income across the reporting group suggests.

The government has framed the transparency data positively. A ministerial release dated 1 October 2026 was headlined on the share of large companies paying income tax reaching a record. The ATO's own release on the report was titled "Transparency continues as large corporate compliance climbs".

Neither headline is the same thing as more tax being collected. Compliance and payment rates can rise even when total tax payable falls, because tax payable depends on profit, not just behaviour.

Transparency data reports amounts payable in a given income year, based on lodged returns. It is not the same as cash received by the Treasury in that year, and amounts can later be amended.

The report also does not reveal individual project economics. A large PRRT payer may simply be further through its deduction pool than a newer project, rather than more profitable in an absolute sense.

Industry groups have long argued that PRRT is working as designed by taxing profits only once investments are recovered. Critics have argued it took too long to collect meaningful revenue from LNG. Both are policy positions rather than findings in the data.

What to watch

The Senate Economics Committee is due to report on 13 November 2026 on Labor's trust and housing tax bills, which may shape the wider revenue debate. Victorians vote on 28 November.

The Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook in December 2026 will show how Treasury now expects resource-related revenue to track.

The next corporate tax transparency report, covering 2025–26, would be expected in late 2027 on the usual timing. It will show whether the higher number of PRRT payers holds or whether 2024–25 was a peak.