From the AFR:
The federal budget will receive little benefit from the mining tax for years to come, says Fortescue Metals Group, which adds it is unlikely to pay the tax over the next half decade.
The revelation came at Senate committee hearings into the troubled Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), which so far has raised only a small fraction of the $2 billion forecast for this financial year.
Fortescue chief financial officer Stephen Pearce indicated the design of tax meant the company would be exempt from any payments during a period when the company expects its corporate tax and state royalty payments to more than double to $4 billion.
Mr Pearce said Fortescue was unlikely to pay the tax because its state royalty payments could be claimed as an offset in years to come and through the depreciation of its mining assets, which will reduce its taxable income.
…Mr Pearce suggested Fortescue would not exist had the MRRT been in place before the company began producing iron ore in 2008.
If someone can explain to me how BHP designed a tax that collects nothing but can also prevent investment in new mines I’m all ears.
