One day after the federal government’s minerals resource rent tax passed the Senate, mining giant Rio Tinto has disclosed that its total tax payments jumped 38 per cent to US$10.2 billion last financial year.
Its second annual Taxes Paid report showed that Australia, and the state of Western Australia, were the two jurisdictions that dominated its tax payments.
Rio paid $4.4 billion to the federal government, primarily in the form of company tax.
It paid $1.7 billion into the WA government’s coffers, with most of that in the form of royalties.
Rio said its global tax payments represented 40 per cent of its underlying profit before tax.
The report coincided with the continuing debate over the MRRT, which will apply to the so-called super profits of iron and coal miners.
Rio, along with BHP Billiton and Xstrata, negotiated the MRRT with prime minister Julia Gillard, as a replacement for the previously proposed Resource Super Profits Tax.
Fellow iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group said it is considering a High Court challenge to the MRRT, on the basis that it may be unconstitutional.
