Mr Martin Ferguson asked the Treasurer, upon notice, on 11 November 1998:

(1) How many companies pay company tax in Australia.

(2) How many companies referred to in part (1) paid company tax at (a) 30, (b) 25, (c) 20, (d) 15, (e) 10 and (f) 5 cents in the dollar in (i) 1992-93, (ii) 1993-94, (iii) 1994-95, (iv) 1995-96 and (v) 1996-97.

Mr Costello (Treasurer) —The Assistant Treasurer has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1) For the 1995-96 income year, 222,719 companies paid company tax in Australia.

(2) Generally no company would pay company tax at these rates, as the prescribed company tax rate for each year in question is as follows:

1992-93—39 cents in the dollar

1993-94—33 cents in the dollar

1994-95—33 cents in the dollar

1995-96—36 cents in the dollar

1996-97—36 cents in the dollar.

The effective rate will vary according to the degree to which the company has access to tax offsets and various concessions available under taxation legislation.

Concessions under the taxation legislation that will affect a company's rate of tax include depreciation deductions, inter-corporate dividend rebates, franking credits, foreign source income and credits and research and development expenditure.

There are different methods of calculating average tax and each may produce different results, eg, calculation of average tax on accounting profits rather than taxable income or using tax expense provision as against using actual tax paid.

The Australian Taxation Office does not keep statistical information relating to the number of companies which pay varying rates of tax.