Nearly one third of Australia’s largest corporations are paying corporate tax of 10 cents or less in every dollar, according to a new report.

The Who Pays for our Common Wealth? report exposes the tax practices of the ASX 200 companies from 2004 to 2013, showing their combined effective tax rate over the past decade has been 23 per cent.

But it claims some major companies such as James Hardie paid no tax at all.

Other including Frank Lowy’s Westfield Retail Trust paid just $1.8 million in tax, compared to a pre-tax profit of more than $534 million, for an effective tax of 0 per cent.

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox paid an effective tax rate of just 1 per cent, according to the report.

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Australia does not have a spending problem, it has a revenue problem, claims the report by the Tax Justice Network and United Voice.

In its research the report claims up to $80 billion should have been paid to the taxman, an amount that could have covered the Federal Government’s past two budget deficits.

The report claims 57 per cent of ASX companies have subsidiaries in tax havens.

“Tackling corporate tax avoidance is an urgent priority. Australia does not have a spending problem – there is a revenue problem, and it must be fixed,” the report’s authors write.

While individuals and small and medium business owners pay their fair share of tax, the larger companies may be having a significant impact on Australia’s revenue base through tax minimisation.

“This problem needs to be addressed so that all companies, Australian and foreign-owned, large and small, compete on a level playing field and pay a fair share of corporate income tax.”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told ABC radio Australia had some of the toughest anti-tax avoidance laws in the world.

“Having said that, obviously we are very conscious of the fact that we need to continue to be vigilant and we’re working very hard to build a stronger tax administration and to pursue whatever policy response is required, domestically and internationally, through the G20,” he said ABC radio.

The Corporate Tax Association dismissed the report, telling Fairfax there were usually “logical explanations for low effective company tax rates”.