It’s time to get real on the mining superprofits tax.
The big miners have used their loopholes and their lawyers
to minimise their obligation to pay taxes.This is after Gillard came to their rescue when Rudd was planning to tax all mining and at a much higher rate than contained in the current tax.
Rudd’s Resources Super Profit Tax (RSPT) was a 40% tax on the ‘super’ profits made from ‘the
exploitation of Australia’s non-renewable resources’ including gold, nickel and
uranium mining as well as sand and quarrying activities.
All of the latter
were exempted under a deal struck by Gillard after her coup against Rudd.
The current
Mineral Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) applies only to coal and iron ore.
The tax is lower
(30%) and a company now has to have annual profits of $75m compared to Rudd’s
RSPT threshold of $50m.
One of the
loopholes is that companies can deduct from profits various allowances
including royalties paid to states and territories and company valuations of
plant and equipment.
The effect of all
this is that a tax originally designed to bring in $3bn in its first year of
operation (the RSPT in the 2012-13 year), increasing to $9bn in 2013-14 was
emasculated so that its projected revenue was only $2bn and, with all the
loopholes has only managed to raise $126m (or $0.126bn) in its first six
months.
It’s now time to
get serious and demand that the original RSPT scope and rates be reapplied.
We’ve got austerity
measures being introduced all around the country for lack of government
revenue, and the big miners just kicking sand in the government’s face.
Please follow
this link to the Spirit of Eureka website and
sign the online petition accessed on the right hand side of the page for an
increase in the mining tax.
And if we get
enough people to be really serious we can move on to nationalising the major
miners and passing on all of their profits to society.
