Time to get real on mining tax

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.