Some of Australia’s biggest data centre operators paid no tax in the 2024-25 financial year, despite reporting hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars in income as construction of new facilities accelerates across the country.

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has revealed the companies that paid no tax as part of its latest tax transparency report, which covers more than 4,000 companies that lodged tax returns in the 2024-25 financial year.

Almost 30 per cent of the companies included in the report paid no tax during the year.

The ATO said there can be legitimate reasons for a company to have a nil tax result, including accounting losses and tax offsets.

ATO acting deputy commissioner Michelle Sams said there are legitimate reasons why some companies did not pay any tax, such as accounting losses or tax offsets.

“It’s important to remember that a nil tax result doesn’t automatically imply wrongdoing,” Sams said in a statement.

“Many large businesses legitimately pay no income tax but we continue to scrutinise these outcomes closely, as the community expects.”

Data centre operators under scrutiny

The ATO data shows that several of Australia’s largest data centre companies paid no tax in 2024-25.

AirTrunk, the Australian company that builds and operates data centres, reported total income of $282 million but had no taxable income for the year.

The company operates five data centres across Sydney and Melbourne, including what it describes as Australia’s largest hyperscale data centre campus.

Microsoft Data Centre Australia, the data centre-focused subsidiary of Microsoft, also paid no tax despite reporting $2.3 billion in taxable income.

Microsoft committed $25 billion earlier this year to AI infrastructure, security and skills in Australia, including a major expansion of its data centre capacity.

NextDC, which operates 17 data centres across Australia, reported taxable income of $461 million but paid no tax.

CDC Group Holdings, formerly known as Canberra Data Centres, reported $1.5 billion in total income and also paid no tax.

The figures come as governments and industry ramp up investment in data centres, with states competing to attract new facilities to meet growing demand for cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

Sams said the ATO would pay particular attention to industries where large numbers of companies reported paying no tax.

“We look very closely if there’s no tax being paid in significant industries, including things like data centres, to make sure that the level of tax being paid reflects the economic activity that’s happening in Australia,” she said.

Other tech giants pay no tax

The ATO data also shows that several other major technology companies paid no tax in 2024-25.

Fintech giant Airwallex, which recently raised US$320 million in a Series H funding round, reported $106 million in total income but paid no tax.

Singtel, the parent company of Optus, reported $8.3 billion in total income but paid no tax, while Sony Australia reported $1.6 billion in income and also paid no tax.

Other major tech companies did pay tax during the year.

Australian software giant Atlassian reported $7.5 billion in total income and paid $143 million in tax, while Canva reported $3.2 billion in income and paid $161 million.

Adobe reported $1.1 billion in total income in Australia and paid $16 million in tax, while Netflix reported $1.4 billion in total income and paid $8.4 million in tax.