ATO benchmarks · 2023-24
The number the ATO already has about your business.
For 100 industries, the ATO publishes the expense ratio it expects a business of your size to fall inside - and uses it to decide who to look at more closely. It is public and free, and most business owners have never seen theirs. Find your industry, see the range, and check your own numbers against it without handing over an email address.
- Air conditioning, refrigeration and heating services
- Alarm systems installation - fire and security
- Architectural services
- Automotive electrical services
- Bakeries and hot bread shops
- Barber and men's hairdressing
- Beauty services
- Blocklaying services
- Book retailing
- Bottle shops and liquor retailing
- Bricklaying services
- Cabinet makers
- Cake shops and patisseries
- Carpentry services
- Carpet laying services
- Catering services
- Cement rendering
- Chicken shops
- Child care services
- Chiropractic and osteopathic services
- Cleaning services - building and other industrial
- Cleaning services - carpet, rug and furniture upholstery
- Clothing retailing
- Coffee shops
- Computer retailing
- Concreting services
- Confectionery retailing
- Courier services
- Craft shops
- Delicatessen
- Delivery services
- Dental specialists
- Dental surgeons - general
- Discount and variety stores
- Domestic appliance repair and maintenance
- Driving schools and instructors
- Electrical and electronic product retailing
- Electrical services
- Entertainment media retailing
- Fence construction
- Fish and chips shops
- Fish and seafood retailing - fresh
- Floor covering retailing
- Florists
- Footwear retailing
- Fruit and vegetable retailing
- Fuel retailing
- Furniture removalists
- Furniture retailing
- Garden supplies retailing
- Gift stores
- Glazing services
- Grocery retailing and convenience stores
- Hairdressers
- Hardware and building supplies retailing
- Health and fitness centres
- Health food retailing
- Homewares retailing
- Ice cream retailing
- Kebab shops
- Landscape construction
- Laundry and dry-cleaning services
- Lawn mower retailing
- Lawn mowing and garden services
- Machinery and equipment repairs and maintenance
- Manchester and other textile goods retailing
- Meat and poultry retailing - fresh
- Motor vehicle parts and batteries retailing
- Motor vehicle retail - new and used car
- Musical instruments retail
- Newsagents
- Painting services
- Panel beating and smash repairs
- Pest control services
- Pets and pet supply retailing
- Pharmacy
- Physiotherapy services
- Picture framing retailing
- Pizza shops - takeaway
- Plastering and ceiling services
- Plumbing services
- Printing
- Printing support services
- Pubs, taverns and bars
- Restaurants
- Road freight transport services
- Roofing services, including roof tiling, guttering and metal roofing
- Sports and physical recreation instruction
- Sports, camping and fishing retailing
- Stationery goods retailing
- Takeaway food services
- Tiling services - floor and wall
- Timber floor sanding
- Tobacco retailing
- Towing services
- Toy and game retailing
- Tutoring and coaching
- Tyre retailing
- Veterinary services
- Watch and jewellery retailing
What this is, and what it is not.
These are the Australian Taxation Office's own small business benchmarks, drawn from the tax returns and activity statements of businesses in each industry. They describe what is usual: for a given industry at a given size, the range most businesses fall inside.
Sitting outside the range is not a finding against you. It is one of the signals the ATO uses to decide where to look, and plenty of legitimate businesses sit outside theirs in any given year. What it does mean is that being asked to explain becomes more likely - and the time to have that explanation ready is before the letter arrives.
They are also not a measure of whether a business is any good. A business can sit perfectly inside its range and still be going backwards. That is a different conversation, and a more interesting one.
Source: Australian Taxation Office, Small Business Benchmarks, key ratios for the 2023-24 income year, published on data.gov.au under CC BY 2.5 AU and reproduced unaltered. General information only, not tax advice.
Going deeper than the ratios.
The ATO ranges tell you whether you look ordinary. They do not tell you what your wages line should be, what rent your peers pay, or what the top quartile in your industry actually earns per owner. For that we pull a full commercial benchmark report - 180+ industries, and a real analyst comparison against your numbers. Here is what one looks like.
Sample report
Real Estate Agents
Open the PDF →
Sample report
Physiotherapists
Open the PDF →
Sample report
Restaurants
Open the PDF →
Sample report
Construction Companies
Open the PDF →