PERTH (miningweekly.com) − The Minerals Council of Australia on Monday refuted government claims that mining companies were not paying enough tax, saying that total tax take reached around 42.2% during the 2009/10 financial year.

This meant that taxpayers received about 42c for every dollar of taxable income earned by miners, the industry body stated.

The 42.2% was an increase from 40.6% in the 2008/9 financial year, and well above the estimate of 27% headlined in the official figures during the tax debate last year.

The report, compiled by Deloitte Access Economic, was commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) in response to claims that miners only paid an effective tax rate of 27%.

The report stated that the data relied upon during the debate was often inappropriately used, or old, and that the use of different data sources led to erroneous calculations and misleading conclusions.

In order to improve the quality and timeliness of data on which public policy debates are based, the MCA commissioned Deloitte Access Economics in late 2010 to assist it in collecting its own data on taxes paid by mining companies.

The survey collected data for the 2007/8, 2008/9 and 2009/10 financial years from 21 companies. The survey sample covered around 75% of the yearly revenue from the sale of minerals and over 90% of the larger minerals companies.

Most of the companies surveyed record revenue from minerals production in Australia in excess of $1-billion a year.

The survey found that overall, the tax take from the larger miners has been relatively stable in recent years. The royalty tax take averaged 16.4% between 2007/8 and 2009/10, while the total tax take averaged 41.5%.

“Accordingly, the tax take has not fallen to the low levels cited in last year’s mining tax debate. This is particularly the case when a wider view is taken of the mining tax take to include company tax as well as royalties,” the report noted.
 

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