BASE METALS AND TAXES

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue 123, 26 May 1943, Page 5

BASE METALS AND TAXES

Silver-lcad-zinc mining companies operating in Australia have been excluded from the benefit of the income tax provision by which 20 per cent of the net income from mining operations is exempt from tax. This is because a later amendment of the Act, in effect, limits the exemption to 20 per ccnt of the net income derived from the particular base metals or rare minerals specified in the regulations. According to circulars to t,helr shareholders issued by North Broken Hill, Limited, and Broken Hill South, Limited, it was found that none of the base metals or rare minerals produced by the silver-lead-zinc companies (with the exception of copper, which is produced only in small quantities), were included in the 20 metals and minerals covcred by the regulations. The companies claim that all the saleable products from the mixed ores mined by them are unquestionably

"required for use in. or in conncction with, the prosecution of the present war," and that all the assessable income derived from their mining operations should qualify for the exemption. They point out that all their metal products "are in unsatisfied demand for meeting the war needs of the Allied Nations." Shareholders also are affected directly, because of the provision that exempt income when distributed to shareholders would also be free of tax in their hands.