Australia is on track to match Qatar as the world's biggest liquefied natural gas exporter next year. The boost to the budget bottom line? Virtually nil.

While the Persian Gulf nation is forecast to rake in as much as $26.6 billion in fiscal 2020 from taxes on the fuel, Australia is set to reap a paltry $800 million, according to analysis by the Tax Justice Network's Australian office.

Australia's Petroleum Resource Rent Tax levies 40 per cent on profits after company tax has been paid, a system that works pretty well for oil projects but is a poor fit for LNG projects. That's because an oil venture can be cash positive within a few years of production, while LNG requires significantly more capital expenditure, prolonging the time before it generates enough cash to pay tax, a government report found.

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The figures "are an indication the fiscal regime for Australia's LNG sector is broken," said Juan Carlos Boue, who made a submission to Australia's inquiry on tax avoidance while working as an oil industry consultant at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies. "The incentives are simply too excessive."