Oz miners operating in Africa criticised for tax evasion

Australian mining companies were engaging in secretive tax practices and depriving governments in Africa of millions of dollars in tax revenue, new research claims to reveal. The research report, Buried Treasure, estimates that more than $1 billion in profits was shifted out of Africa to tax havens by Australian mining companies in just one year (2015), equating to up to almost $300 million in tax revenue. The joint report by Oxfam Australia, Tax Justice Network Australia and the Uniting Church in Australia also highlights the extent to which the tax affairs of too many of Australia’s mining giants remain cloaked in secrecy. The report shows the majority of Australian mining companies fail to publish enough tax information to understand their tax payments and practices. But a spokesman for the Minerals Council of Australia argued that Australia’s mining industry – which paid $18 billion in income tax and $12 billion in royalties in the last financial year – was a global leader in tax transparency. “The mining industry already complies with both mandatory and voluntary tax transparency codes, in comparison with other sectors such as the global digital sector," he said. “A number of mining companies operating globally are subject to multiple tax transparency regimes. In Australia, these include the Voluntary Tax Transparency Code and the implementation of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), both of which the MCA supports.” The Buried Treasure research drilled down into the detail of mining operations owned by three Australian companies – the Edikan gold mine (owned by Perseus Mining), the Kinsevere mine (owned by MMG Ltd) and the Sierra Rutile mine (more recently purchased by Iluka Resources) in Africa. Australia was a global mining giant, but was lagging behind other countries on mandatory tax transparency laws that would require multinational mining companies to come clean on their tax payments on a country-by-country and project-by-project basis, Oxfam Australia Chief Executive Dr Helen Szoke said. “To put this in context, the estimated nearly $300 million lost in 2015 through the unethical tax practices of Australian mining companies is almost seven times the total cost of national malaria control programs in nine of the poorest countries across sub-Saharan Africa," Ms Szoke said. The report also ranks 40 ASX listed Australian mining companies on a scale showing which are the most and the least transparent on public reporting of their tax affairs – and found half fall into the worst category, Tax Justice Network Australia spokesman Mark Zirnsak said. “Australian mining companies rarely reveal enough tax data for the public to easily understand their full global tax practices, and the handful that do primarily do so in response to laws changing in countries other than Australia,” Mr Zirnsak said. “The estimated tax avoidance by the Australian mining sector in Africa is just a snapshot of an enormous global problem," he said. "This is simply not good enough – it is time for Australian companies to lead the way on transparency and the Government to act to bring an end to this scourge.”

Oz miners operating in Africa criticised for tax evasion

Industry Queensland

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