The controversial Minerals Resource Rent Tax
(MRRT) has now become law in Australia and will
come into effect on 1 July 2012.
The MRRT is a tax on profits made from extracting iron ore and
coal in Australia, as well as gas extracted as a necessary incident
of coal mining and gas produced by the in situ combustion of
coal.
The MRRT will apply in full to those miners whose profits exceed
AUD$125 million per year. Miners with mining profits of less than
AUD$75 million per year will have their MRRT liability reduced to
nil. To reduce distortions, the MRRT liability for miners with
profits between AUD$75 million and AUD$125 million will be phased
in.
There will be approximately 320 MRRT taxpayers in total. The
Australian Federal Government currently predicts that the MRRT will
generate AUD$10.6 billion in revenue over the next three years,
with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata to account for 90 per cent
of this revenue. The Government's revenue projections
