Financial Benefits

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For many countries, mineral resources represent a vital opportunity to achieve much-needed economic and social development.

However, the financial promise of mining can go unfulfilled when host governments are unable to collect their fair share of financial benefits. This can be due to poorly drafted contracts, poorly designed fiscal policies and tax incentives, or aggressive tax planning by multinationals.

Collecting fair revenue and sharing benefits also builds trust, which is key to strong mineral supply chains that support economic development. This is especially important today, as the global economy demands critical mineral inputs for new technologies and the transition to low-carbon energy.

In accordance with the IGF’s cornerstone Mining Policy Framework, the Secretariat supports member countries in building and administering mining fiscal regime measures that secure their fair share of revenues from the sector.

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Global Mining Tax Initiative

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The Global Mining Tax Initiative is the main component of the IGF’s work on financial benefits. It is a distinct program offering for IGF member countries that covers fiscal policy for the entire mining value chain, from exploration and development to mining, processing, mineral sales, and mine closure. This specialized and comprehensive work program focuses on all aspects of fiscal policy, including taxes, royalties, and financial modelling. It shares unique expertise on international tax challenges related to the global mining sector.

The Global Mining Tax Initiative

The Future of Resource Taxation

The IGF partnered with the African Tax Administration Forum to rethink how developing countries benefit financially from their mineral resources. We launched The Future of Resource Taxation in 2020, a research project to discover how the existing system of mining taxation can be improved and identify new, innovative fiscal options for resource-rich countries to maximize the returns from their mineral wealth.

The project crowdsourced and developed policy ideas from governments, civil society, academia, and industry. The end result is a handbook for policy-makers: The Future of Resource Taxation: 10 Policy Ideas to Mobilize Mining Revenues. It presents a menu of innovative fiscal measures to strengthen revenue collection in the mining sector.

Resources

Financial Benefit-Sharing Issues for Critical Minerals: Challenges and opportunities for producing c

Are current fiscal approaches and policies aligned with national strategies, including ensuring that mineral-rich developing countries collect an appropriate share of the financial bene
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Determining the Price of Minerals: A transfer pricing framework

Practical guidance to support developing countries in accurately pricing mineral sales for the purposes of revenue collection.
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The Future of Resource Taxation: 10 policy ideas to mobilize mining revenues

The mining sector is at the nexus of important global phenomena: climate change and the push to transition to low-carbon energy, the development of new technologies affecting labour mar
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Protecting the Right to Tax Mining Income: Tax treaty practice in mining countries

This practice note is to help government officials in resource-rich developing countries–who may be deciding to adopt or renegotiate tax treaties–to protect their right to tax minin
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Global Digital Tax Reforms and Mining: The issue of temporary differences

This report examines how the OECD-led global digital tax reforms could lead to lost mining investment and revenue in developing countries if issues related to temporary differences are
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Global Digital Tax Reforms: Highlighting potential impacts for mining countries

This report examines how proposed global tax reforms aimed at the digital sector may affect resource-rich developing nations.
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The Future of Resource Taxation: A roadmap

This document frames the IGF and ATAF’s project, The Future of Resource Taxation, which takes stock of mining taxation practices and considers alternatives to maximize the returns
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Insights on Incentives: Tax competition in mining

This paper highlights key findings from an analysis of the IGF Mining Tax Incentives Database, a collection of files comparing the fiscal regimes of 104 mining projects across 21 count
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Tax Incentives in Mining: Minimising risks to revenue (supplementary guidance )

In a world of mobile capital and profits, many developing countries use tax incentives in the hope of attracting domestic and foreign investment. Their effectiveness, however, has often
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Monitoring the Value of Mineral Exports: Policy options for governments

This practice note aims to increase policy-makers knowledge of the process of determining the value of exported minerals and support informed, risk-based government decisions on how bes
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Tax Incentives in Mining: Minimising risks to revenue

This practice note looks at tax incentives in the mining sector to help governments design fiscal regimes for the mining industry that raise sufficient revenue, while providing adequate
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Limiting the Impact of Excessive Interest Deductions on Mining Revenue

This document responds to a concern of many developing countries that multinational enterprises use debt “excessively” in mineral-producing countries as a mechanism to shift profits
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Blogs, Announcements, and Other Posts

A lithium mining operation in a vast salt flat, with large white mounds of lithium salt reflecting in the shallow water. The scene is set against a backdrop of rugged mountains under a clear blue sky

Price Indices Approach Is Key to Lithium Revenue Collection

How can mineral-rich countries determine accurate prices for lithium and ensure fair revenue collection in the sector? The use of price indices is key in this regard.

Setting a Benchmark Price for Phosphate to Bring Financial Benefits to Senegal

The IGF helped Senegal establish a phosphate reference price to improve revenue collection in the sector.

Conference on the Future of Resource Taxation in Latin America and the Caribbean

Bringing together government officials from ministries of mining, finance, and revenue authorities, as well as industry, civil society, academia, and international organizations, to dis

Updates to UN and OECD Model Tax Treaties Aim to Stop Mining Revenue Leakage

How do new proposals from the UN and OECD seek to address concerns from resource-rich countries about revenue risks associated with tax treaties?

Variable Royalties for Mineral Price Volatility in the Energy Transition

Careful design and implementation of these variable royalties could prove worthwhile for many countries, especially as mineral price volatility is likely to increase in the energy trans

Argentina Gets Innovative With Export Duty, Uses Financial Modelling to Unlock Economic Potential

The IGF helped Argentina to financially model mining development projects to assess how fiscal regimes may be affecting mining investment decisions.

Argentina Pulling Policy Levers to Maximize Lithium Benefits

Argentina is using a number of policy tools to ensure lithium extraction fully benefits the nation.

Mining Fiscal Tools Should Offer Simplicity, Participation, Fairness, and Compensation

Governments want innovative and effective fiscal policies for the mining sector that offer simplicity, participation, fairness, and compensation.

The Future of Mining Taxation

A webinar to discuss how countries can adapt their mining tax policies to respond to climate change, automation, and the global tax justice movement.

Financial Benefits from the Lithium Industry: Opportunities and challenges for Argentina

The half-day event included two panel discussions about financial benefits and the lithium sector focusing on opportunities and challenges at the national and provincial levels.

The OECD–G20 International Tax Reforms and Mining: Implications for IGF members

Many multinational mining companies will be subject to the new global tax rules and governments should understand the new rules may interact with their domestic fiscal regime for extrac
IGF and OECD experts with government officials in Guinea

Establishing a Reference Price for Bauxite Gets Fair Returns for Guinea

The IGF worked with Guinea to establish a benchmark price for bauxite.

UNU-WIDER-IGF Webinar | Critical Minerals and Revenue Generation

The IGF and UNU-WIDER's sixth researchers’ seminar on Extractive Industries: Taxation and Revenues.

Transfer Pricing Audit Capacity Pays Dividends for Mongolia

The IGF partnered with international organizations to help Mongolia strengthen revenue collection from its mining sector.

Do Resource-Rich Countries Get a Fair Share of Mineral Exports? Insights from their governments

This blog explores results and analysis from a government survey to gauge fiscal objectives and challenges to mining revenue collection.