The Telstra Corporation Ltd (ASX: TLS) share price edged higher on Friday, coming within range of breaking a multi-year high.
By Friday's closing bell, the telco provider's shares had picked up momentum, climbing 0.25% higher to $4.06. This means that the share price is now trading at the same levels as pre-COVID.
Telstra returns to Australia's top corporate rankings
The release of the Australian Taxation Office's (ATO) corporate tax transparency report for 2019-20 saw Telstra notch up a few places.
Part of the $57.2 billion haul for the ATO, Telstra re-entered the top 10 club of Australia's biggest tax payers.
Coming in at first place, Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) took the mantle, paying around $5.2 billion in tax. Fellow mining peer BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) was not far behind, having to dish out $4.6 billion to the ATO.
Moving down the list, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) and Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG) occupied the third and fourth spot, respectively.
This was followed by the remaining big 3 banks, retail conglomerate, Wesfarmers Ltd (ASX: WES), and finally Telstra.
The top-10 exclusive club had a combined tax bill of almost $25 billion. This is close to half the amount the remaining 1,578 organisations paid in tax.
Telstra paid $901 million to the ATO in 2019-20, a 4.4% increase from the $861 million paid the previous year.
The club no one wants to be part of
Notably, this is in stark contrast to United States tech giants Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL), and Facebook (NASDAQ: FB). The trio paid a collective total of $190 million in Australia, where revenue topped about $11.93 billion together. Apple generated the lion's share with nearly $10 billion in total income for the financial year.
Unsurprisingly, the number of Australian companies that paid no tax in 2019-20 rose during COVID-19. The ATO revealed that 33%, or 782 businesses out of the 2,370 corporate entities examined, did not pay tax.
The ATO noted that multinational profit shifting was to blame, with companies declaring operating losses. A common loophole around the world, whereby tax is levied on profits and not gross income. Companies usually shift funds into countries that have extremely low taxes such as Ireland, the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands.
About the Telstra share price
Throughout 2021 the Telstra share price has continued to climb, posting a gain of almost 35% for the period.
Late last month, the company's shares reached a multi-year high of $4.09, a level not reached since 2017. It's worth noting that the share price closed just 2 cents below that on Friday at $4.07.
Based on valuation metrics, Telstra commands a market capitalisation of around $48.07 billion, with approximately 11.84 billion shares on issue.
