Revenue allocation under the MRRT: Economic aspects

The Minerals Resources Rent Tax (MRRT) is intended to tax the rents properly attributed to minerals at the time and place of their extraction (ie at the mouth of the mine). However, mining operations involve a degree of vertical integration that in some cases extends from mine to port. We examine the approach adopted in the MRRT to allocating the resulting revenues as between the taxing point and the downstream operations and show that it both lacks economic rationale and is likely to distort build/buy decisions.