Google’s Australian arm paid $133m to the Taxation Office last year as it caught up with back taxes.
The company, one of the ATO’s most high-profile targets in a campaign to get tech giants to pay tax in Australia, declared a profit before tax of $134m in 2019, down from $156m the previous year.
Its results were filed on Thursday as Google resisted moves by the competition watchdog to force it and Facebook to pay for news content under a mandatory code.
Earlier this month Google Australia’s managing director, Mel Silva, hit back against the idea, saying in a lengthy blog post that the snippets of articles Google displays in search results were similar to posters outside newsagents.
Google Australia’s financial accounts, filed on Thursday, show the company’s profit decline came despite an increase in revenue from about $1bn to $1.2bn.
The company got a tax bill of $59m last year, but it also recorded an “adjustment” for tax in previous years that cost it an additional $50m.
Differences between when Google Australia recognised taxes were payable and when they were paid are believed to account for the rest of the cash sent to the ATO.
Company accounts show that since 2017, when Google Australia began paying large amounts of tax, it has handed more than $450m to the ATO.
By contrast, as recently as 2015 Google Australia claimed to have revenue of just $500m a year, and was paying tax of a few million dollars a year.
In a move that outraged the ATO, it formerly claimed sales made to Australian customers took place in Singapore.
The tax turnaround is a major victory for the ATO, and follows a multi-year campaign to force multinationals to pay more tax launched by then-treasurer Joe Hockey and spearheaded by tax commissioner Chris Jordan.
The company said it had invested $1bn in beefing up its Australian operation.
In notes to the accounts, Google Australia also said the coronavirus pandemic had caused a “global market disruption”.
“The future impact of the current economic situation is uncertain and difficult to predict,” it said.
