Summary

  • Every carrier licensed during FY 2025–26 must report by 31 October 2026; the A$25m rule changes the evidence route, not the filing obligation.
  • Three alternative revenue measures and a common-parent group calculation decide whether a carrier files a full return or a statutory declaration.

The calendar says 31 October. The real question is what a carrier must prove before that date. Australia’s next telecommunications industry levy reporting round uses a new revenue determination for the 2025–26 eligible revenue period. Every business that held a carrier licence at any time from 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026 must give the ACMA revenue information through TELLER. The A$25 million line separates two forms of evidence, but it does not create a small-carrier exemption from reporting.

The threshold is three tests, not a turnover cutoff

A carrier can be treated as a non-participating person if any one of three figures is below A$25m: initial sales revenue; gross telecommunications sales revenue; or the eligible revenue it would have if it were a participating person. The carrier must make an eligible statutory declaration within the specified period, unless the ACMA is otherwise reasonably satisfied that the relevant figure is below the threshold. The 2025 determination applies from the 2025–26 revenue period.

The group rule complicates the familiar picture of a licence holder measuring only its own accounts. If a carrier shares an ultimate Australian parent with other licensed carriers, the relevant calculations must be done on a group basis. Revenue and deductions are identified and accounted for as a whole. The perimeter therefore follows the accounting relationship specified in the instrument, not merely the company name on the carrier licence.

Nor is eligible revenue synonymous with turnover. The determination begins with initial sales revenue. It removes non-telecommunications sales, adds other telecommunications sales, and adjusts for revenue earned outside the period in which the entity held a carrier licence. That yields gross telecommunications sales revenue. Defined deductions then produce net telecommunications sales revenue and, through the final rules, eligible revenue.

Deductions include specified overseas activity, services delivered in Australia for use outside Australia, customer equipment and content services, exempt base stations, infrastructure installation or maintenance, inter-person input payments and other permitted amounts. Related-party and group calculations can change both the amount and the party to which it is attributed.

Two routes, one reporting perimeter

A participating person files an eligible revenue return in TELLER and supplies supporting financial statements, including those of declared related parties, plus an outline of the business structure. A non-participating person files through TELLER and supplies an eligible statutory declaration. The ACMA can request evidence to substantiate either an eligible revenue return or a declaration. For non-participants, its monitoring framework lists examples of records that may support the claim; the agency encourages carriers to complete the revenue calculation or upload supporting material with the declaration to reduce later requests.

The distinction is a difference in the first proof delivered, not a promise that one group will never be examined. An eligible statutory declaration is a formal statement by an authorised company officer or other permitted declarant. It gives the regulator a claim tied to a defined measure and period. It does not transform a below-threshold calculation into an unreviewable fact.

The line also shapes the contribution pool

The Telecommunications Industry Levy funds contractors, grant recipients and eligible administrative costs for public-interest services. The ACMA says contributions are proportional to each participating person’s eligible revenue as assessed in the most recent eligible revenue assessment, against the applicable overall levy target amount. The target statement covers relevant contract, grant and administration costs and is based on the previous year’s costs incurred by the universal service provider. The revenue declaration in 2026 therefore feeds a later assessment and levy cycle; it is not a same-day invoice calculation.

The public 2024–25 assessment offers a historical view of the system: it lists participating entities and their levy amounts, totalling A$217.3m. That assessment used an earlier eligible-revenue period and preceded the 2025 determinations. It cannot show how the new threshold will affect the contributor pool, nor how much any operator will owe under the new rules.

The evidentiary boundary also runs in the other direction. ACMA warns that eligible-revenue returns and accompanying documents may have to be released under freedom-of-information law, parliamentary processes, court process or other legal requirements. It says it may consult submitters, but cannot guarantee confidential treatment. A carrier deciding what to submit should distinguish data required by the instrument from optional substantiation, while recognising that “confidential” markings do not displace legal disclosure duties.

No published evidence yet establishes how many carriers will use each route, how costly either route is, whether declarations are more error-prone, or whether the threshold changes prices, entry or investment. Those are empirical questions for later assessments and operational data. The present record establishes the design: licensed status brings every carrier into the reporting perimeter; the three measures and group boundary classify it; the evidence route follows that classification; and participating persons’ assessed revenue proportions the next levy target.

Sources

Editorial lens (not evidence)