ALDI Myth Buster: does ALDI pay its fair share of tax?

When we noticed a recent Fairfax article that brings into question the amount of tax multinational companies such as ALDI are paying, we thought it was a good opportunity to share our commitment to being a responsible Australian tax payer. Because of the practices of others, some people have been left wondering whether ALDI Australia is paying its fair share of tax – in fact it’s a question we get asked by our customers a lot.

Although we have always paid our fair share of tax, as a private company we had previously chosen to limit the information about ALDI’s financial performance for commercial reasons. However, we recognise the importance of public disclosure in supporting tax policy debate and building trust in the Australian tax system. After assessing the impact of implementing the code on our Australian operations, we made the decision to sign up to the Tax Transparency Code (TTC) voluntarily.

To put it simply, we signed the TTC to help our customers and stakeholders better understand the tax we pay. We are committed to being transparent with the public, and tax is no exception. As part of this commitment, we publish a voluntary annual tax report on the ALDI website for anyone to access. You can find the most recent report we’ve released using this link.

“As Australia’s fastest growing supermarket*, we have a strong obligation to our customers, suppliers and the wider community,” said Willi Friderich, Managing Director, Finance and Administration, ALDI Australia. “We support greater tax disclosure as this reflects our commitment to business integrity and transparency.”

Since day one, ALDI has always complied with all statutory tax reporting obligations, maintaining an open and positive working relationship with the Australian Taxation Office (ATO). In fact, ALDI has always paid an average 31% of pre-tax profits to the ATO – even though the standard company tax rate in Australia is 30%.

ALDI contributes significantly to the Australian economy through the payment of Company Income Tax, Fringe Benefits Tax, Payroll Tax, Land Tax, Stamp Duty and the collection of GST and PAYG. As a matter of fact, ALDI is amongst the biggest contributor of income tax in Australia. Based on the annual tax report published by the ATO which summarises the income tax paid by ASX listed and multinationals, it is apparent that not only does ALDI pays its fair share of tax in Australia, it is a significant contributor to the overall tax revenue as demonstrated by the fact that it is consistently ranked amongst the top 100 (and top 4%) corporates for the years which the ATO have published this data.

The only difference after signing the TTC is that we now make our tax reports available to the public, rather than just to the ATO.

We’re proud of the role we’ve played in the Australian community since we opened our first store in 2001, and want to assure the public that we will always be committed to supporting all our tax obligations in Australia.