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Of the companies that paid no tax in the new data, 16% made an accounting loss and 10% used losses from previous years. Five per cent made a loss only on a tax basis and 2% used tax offsets.

Australia’s flag carrier, Qantas, was able to use carried forward losses, including one of a mammoth $2.8bn in the 2013-14 financial year, to reduce its taxes to zero until the 2017-18 financial year, when it paid $11m.

This increased to $253m the following year. But over the next few years, Qantas is once again unlikely to pay tax after declaring a $2.35bn loss in the financial year just gone due to most of its fleet being grounded by the coronavirus crisis.