PERTH (miningweekly.com) – A new report commissioned by the Minerals Council of Australia (MCA) has revealed that mining tax ratios in the Australian mining industry were at, or above, the long-term average, despite legislative reforms.

In the report, titled 'Mining Tax Ratios Revisited', author Chris Richardson, a partner in Deloitte Access Economics, indicated that the industry’s tax and royalty burden did not decline much during the mining boom and that it had not fallen in recent years.

In fact, he stated that the tax burden had risen as commodity prices and profits have fallen and states have increased royalty rates.

Drawing on official data and the latest MCA tax survey, Richardson calculated that a mining tax ratio of 53% applied to Australian miners in 2012/13, above the average of 51% since the turn of the century.

And further falls in commodity prices since 2012/13 meant that this ratio would have risen even higher, Richardson noted.

The report called on state and federal governments to consider royalty payments as part of the tax contribution from miners, with Richardson saying that the economic impact of these on miners was the same as taxes.

“The purpose [of a royalty] – to allow the community a return on the use of its raw materials – is the same,” he added.

“Whether you look at just the royalty take, or whether you add in company taxes as well, 2012/13, the latest available date, show mining tax ratios are at, or above, their longer-term average,” Richardson said.

The report also revisited the official figures that received most coverage in the tax dispute of 2010, during the time when the Australian government was mulling the introduction of a mineral resources rent tax (MRRT).

Richardson further provided a corrective to those who still viewed the resource super profits tax (RSPT) – the original mining tax – as a tax ‘holy grail’ and a boon to the commonwealth budget and the taxpayer.

“Largely because it refunded state royalties to companies, in good times and in bad, the original super profits tax would have been super expensive had it been implemented as proposed in May 2010 … the RSPT would have cost commonwealth revenue billions of dollars,” he said.

The RSPT, which would have targeted all mining companies with so-called super profits, was dropped in 2010 in favour of the MRRT, which itself was repealed in 2014. The MRRT only focused on iron-ore and coal companies, whose profits exceeded $50-million a year.