Indian-born taxpayers generate billions for Australian economy

New figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reveal that out of $53.4 billion income generated by migrant taxpayers, Indian-born taxpayers generated a whopping $7.9 billion in the year 2011-12.

Source: Flickr / Michael Lee

Indian migrants’ contribution to the Australian economy has been growing every year.

And today, figures released by the Australian Business of Statistics (ABS) have revealed that out of $53.4 billion income generated by migrant taxpayers, Indian-born taxpayers generated a whopping $7.9 billion in the year 2011-12.

Migrant taxpayers generated $53.4 billion in total personal income in 2011-12, an increase in real terms of 17 per cent on 2010-11.

Most of this income ($49 billion, or 91 per cent) was earned as an employee, with the majority reported by skilled migrants. 

"This type of information allows us to get a much better understanding of the sources of personal income earned by migrants each year," said Jenny Dobak from the ABS National Migrants Statistics Unit. 

"Now that we have three years of data, we know that for the majority of migrant employees, median incomes generally increase over time."

Skilled migrants had the highest median employee income at $51,992, followed by those with another permanent visa ($41,941) and those from the family stream ($35,620). 

Of skilled migrants, professionals had the highest median employee income ($75,284), followed by skilled managers ($68,609).

A case study on Indian-born taxpayers showed some interesting facts:

• Indian-born taxpayers generated $7.9 billion in total income, mostly employee income (94 per cent).
• Almost three-quarters of Indian-born taxpayers arrived after 2005. Of these, half were skilled males, with 40 per cent aged 25-34 years of age.
• Almost three-quarters (72%) of Indian migrant taxpayers in 2011-12 held a Skill stream visa. They represented 18% of the 593,500 migrant taxpayers with a Skill steam visa. Just over a quarter of Indian born taxpayers (28%) held a Family or Provisional visa. Less than 0.1% held a Humanitarian or Other permanent visa.
• Female Indian-born migrants who were primary applicants in Tasmania had a median employee income ($82,364) almost double that of their male counterparts ($48,992).
• In 2011-12, more than two-thirds of Indian migrant taxpayers who were primary applicants were located in Victoria (36%) and New South Wales (30%). These two groups also reported 33% and 32% of the total Employee income reported by primary applicants.
• In 2011-12, 14% of all Indian migrant taxpayers reported income from their own unincorporated businesses, with over one third (35%) involved in the Transport, Postal and Warehousing industry.