The short version
What this evidence tells us.
Research collected 3–4 October 2026 for openaus.org. Amounts are nominal Australian dollars unless another currency is stated. This dossier examines who earns, supplies, collects and receives money across the Australian economy, with separate accounts for government, trade, investment and business. It is a research package, not a live national ledger.
The central finding is that government depends heavily on taxes, while the wider economy is funded by a much broader mix of customer revenue, wages, retained profits, domestic savings, credit and overseas investment. Foreign customers and investors matter enormously, but most of their payments go to businesses or asset sellers. Public revenue arises through the connected taxes, royalties, fees and investment returns.
Figures retain their own dates, populations and scope. The complete evidence and original source links remain below.
Evidence and context
The numbers that establish the scale
| Question | Verified observation | Scope and period |
|---|---|---|
| How much does federal government receive? | A$764.4 billion | Commonwealth general government cash receipts, 2025–26 actual |
| How much of that is tax? | A$704.2 billion, or 92.1% | Same account and period |
| How much comes from other receipts? | A$60.2 billion, or 7.9% | Same account and period |
| What about all governments together? | A$1,022.4 billion revenue, including A$839.0 billion tax | Consolidated Australian general government, 2024–25 accrual |
| How much royalty revenue do governments record? | A$23.0 billion | Included in the all-government revenue above, 2024–25 |
| What do overseas customers buy from Australia? | A$665.2 billion of goods and services | Calendar 2025 exports, DFAT June 2026 publication vintage |
| What does Australia buy from overseas? | A$658.3 billion | Calendar 2025 imports, same vintage |
| How much foreign investment is recorded here? | A$5,116.3 billion | Stock of financial liabilities at 31 December 2025, not annual funding |
| How much does Australia hold overseas? | A$4,477.8 billion | Stock of financial assets at the same date |
| What do the large companies in the ATO disclosure report owe? | A$87.49 billion in reported income tax payable | 4,299 reporting entities, 2024–25 income year; not all company tax |
Sources: Final Budget Outcome 2025–26, Table 1.3 (opens in a new tab), ABS Government Finance Statistics 2024–25 (opens in a new tab), DFAT trade table (opens in a new tab), ABS international investment 2025 (opens in a new tab), and ATO entity data (opens in a new tab). Percentages and the unrounded corporate total are calculations reproduced in this package.
These rows cannot be added into a single national income figure. They mix annual flows, year-end stocks, overlapping receipts and different accounting periods. For example, an exporter's tax is already part of government revenue; it is not a second export receipt.
Evidence and context
Read the investigation
- Government revenue and where it goes: revenue by level, the A$220.433 billion consolidation difference, Commonwealth cash and borrowing reconciliations, GST settlement and transfers to each state. Extended 4 October with the underlying accounts.
- How Australia's taxes work: the major tax families, who remits them, who may bear them, current personal brackets, GST, company tax, resources, superannuation and state/local taxes.
- Trade, investors and other countries: customers, imports, lenders, foreign ownership, domestic capital and payments flowing back overseas.
- Big business and the public return: the top 25 disclosed tax-payable amounts, mining and energy, royalties, company contribution claims and asset ownership examples.
- Public information and the next investigations: source access, public limits, reproducibility and the evidence needed to investigate further.
Evidence and context
A map of the flows
| Money originates with | First recipient | What it buys or finances | Connection to public money |
|---|---|---|---|
| Australian households and businesses | Businesses | Goods and services | GST, profits, wages and connected taxes |
| Overseas customers | Australian exporters | Resources, agricultural goods, education, travel and other services | Company and employee taxes, royalties, fees; the export invoice itself belongs to its recipient |
| Australian savers, super funds and investors | Banks, funds, issuers or asset sellers | Lending, equity, infrastructure and property | Government bonds, taxes on investment income and public enterprise distributions |
| Overseas private investors, pension funds and sovereign investors | Australian issuers or sellers | Equity, debt and assets | Government borrowing where the issuer is government; other taxes and conditions where applicable |
| Taxpayers and users of public services | Commonwealth, states and councils | Taxes, fees and charges | Revenue available under the relevant spending authorities |
| Governments | Households, workers, businesses and other governments | Benefits, public services, contracts, grants and investment | Transfers inside government must be consolidated; asset purchases differ from operating expenses |
| Australian businesses and borrowers | Local and overseas owners/lenders | Dividends, interest and debt repayment | Tax depends on the instrument, entity and jurisdiction |
This is a conceptual map based on the fiscal accounts, international accounts and the RBA's explanation of bank funding (opens in a new tab). It is not a measured allocation of every dollar.
Evidence and context
Using the company analogy accurately
An owner's view is useful for asking about assets, income, costs, returns, risks and management. Australia is a sovereign federation with public and private institutions, rather than one corporation with a single bank account. A government bondholder is a creditor. A shareholder in an Australian company owns rights in that company. Neither is thereby a shareholder in the country. The project's business lens works best when each account identifies whose money it is.
For every future profile, answer five questions: Who pays? Who receives? What do they receive in return? What reaches the public? What liabilities or obligations remain? The most useful next investigations connect these answers at a company, project or asset level.
Evidence and context
What has been completed
The preserved sources support a national revenue breakdown, a tax-system explanation, annual trade tables, international investment and income flows, and an entity-level corporate tax dataset. Corporate data retains 4,415 income-tax rows: 4,299 for 2024–25, 95 late 2023–24 returns and 21 late 2022–23 returns. It also retains the 21 PRRT records. The tax extract contains 327 observations, including published totals and consolidation information.
The fiscal reconciliation, added 4 October, connects the separate government accounts to the national total and reproduces the Commonwealth cash, GST and state-transfer bridges. It uses four newly archived ABS workbooks alongside the existing all-government workbook and FBO. Source hashes, selected control totals, periods, headings and calculations are checked by extract.py and the read-only verify_fiscal.py. This is extraction verification, not an independent audit of the publishers. Detailed legal rates for every local charge, all ultimate owners, company-level public subsidies and a complete transaction history remain outside the completed evidence; their routes and limits are set out in sources and gaps.
Evidence and context
Additional national research
The national outcomes package, delivered 3 October 2026, adds ten briefings on households, housing, public return, services, care, First Nations priorities, natural capacity, resilience, power and social connection. It reuses this dossier’s ATO original for an exact APLNG entity reconciliation and retains full-specification gaps separately from checked observations.