The tax, levied on 30% of the "super profits" from the mining of iron ore and coal in Australia, was introduced on 1 July 2012.
[1] A company was to pay the tax when its annual profits reach $75 million, a measure designed so as not to burden small business.
A January 2014 poll conducted by UMR Research, however, found that a majority of Australians still think that multinational mining companies do not pay enough tax.
The Petroleum Resource Rent Tax is to be extended to all Australian onshore and offshore oil and gas projects as part of the new framework.
[4] The RSPT was to be levied at 40% and applied to all extractive industry including gold, nickel and uranium mining as well as sand and quarrying activities.
[8] The controversy regarding the RSPT was such that an "ad war" between the government and mining interests began in May 2010[9] and continued until the downfall of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in June 2010.
[10] The Australian Electoral Commission released figures indicating mining interests had spent $22 m in campaigning and advertisements in the six weeks prior to the end of the Rudd prime ministership.
Unlike the RSPT,[13] mining companies BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto did not publicly oppose the MRRT.
[15] Advertisements supporting or attacking the proposed tax ran on commercial television and in major newspapers.
[citation needed] Julia Gillard ceased the government's advertising after becoming prime minister and the mining lobby ended its ads shortly thereafter.
[25] Where the miner had a group profit of less than $125 million, a low profit offset was available so that: Where a mining project interest or pre‑mining project interest was winding down or had ended, a rehabilitation tax offset may have arisen if upstream rehabilitation expenditure had occurred that would not otherwise have been taken into account in determining MRRT liability.
Soon after the latter's appointment as leader, the government reached an agreement with several of the largest mining firms, including BHP Billiton, Xstrata and Rio Tinto,[8] on changes that were announced on 2 July 2010.
[25] In 2012, Fortescue Metals Group and several of its subsidiaries launched a lawsuit challenging the tax's validity under the Constitution of Australia.