Mining taxation

Countries have tended to compete with low or favourable taxation to attract mining investment that in turn generate a taxation base.^[2] It has been noted that in the last decade of the 20th century taxation methods and levels tended to became more uniform across countries in the world.^[3] It is generally though that investment in mining activity is riskier than other types of business and this has led many countries to implement tax incentives.^[4] Some of these incentives target taxation discounts related to mineral exploration and mine development, the first one carrying a lot of uncertainty and the second being usually a very costly investment.^[4] Other areas targeted for tax discounts are machinery importation, relaxed or lack of export tariffs and tax benefits aiming to mitigate schocks from commodity price cycles.^[5] Various countries such as Ecuador, Tanzania and the Philippines apply as of 2023 a policy of taxating profit.^[6]

Historically and up to the present some states have sought increased earnings through state-owned mining companies (e.g. Codelco) rather than restricting their mining income to taxation.^[7]