how miners pay 14 to 17 percent tax

I have no doubt that in answer to "a question" about miners and taxation that the answer was 14 to 17%.

But what was the question??

Apologies to Douglas Admas.

Statistics is not about compiling an answer but about how you frame the question. If the question is framed poorly or with a deliberate outcome in mind, you will still get an answer, but it will be one that is statistically unreliable.

How could we accidentaly get a low rate of tax payments by the mining sector.?

"TAX PAYMENTS"
this term is extremely ambiguos. Payments implies a cash flow item and could be from the company's cash flow statement. It could refer be the income tax expense line from the profit and loss.

"TAX LAGGING"
If tax payments from the cash flow are compared to profits during a period of rapidly increasing profitability than the comapny will appear to have a lower tax rate as current year income tax installments are based on the previous years profitability and the difference or under payment is not paid until lodgement of the income tax return in the following year.

This is known as tax lagging. Tax lagging always catches up when profitability flattens out. Eventualy tax payment catch up through payments in the catch up year that add up to more than the corporate rate of tax.

ADDING TAXABLE INCOME AND TAX EXPENSE FROM ACCOUNTS
This is what one might think has been done to compile the tax statistics but there is no chance that this result would be acceptible statistically.

This is because of distortions caused by Losses, Tax Losses, Recognition of carry forward tax benefits.

Large losses are incurred on exploration which can not be booked in the profit and loss as a future income tax benefit until the loss is almost certain to be recovered.
With large projects these adjustments can be in the hundreds of dollars. But they are only timing adjustments. They do not represent a permanent tax saving to the miner.

These distortions can be eliminated if the problem is carefully analysed and the question framed correctly.

If the framing of the question is not released then as a statistical paper it should not be relied upon.

Release how the statistics are complled and can get a result which would stand up to peer review.

As we have a government using emergency powers about the level of tax paid by miners shorly the goverment should release enough infomation so the pubilc can be satisfied that no one has "sampled for the desired result".

Useful info
"There are three types of lies; ,lies, dammed lies, and statistics." Harry Truman

Douglas Admas wrote the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy. In it the answer to the "ultimate question" was "42". He wrote three books, in part, about his search. Because the had the answer what he needed to know was what was the ultimate question. He never found the question.

RIO in its release Tuesday stated they paid corporate tax of $14.6Billion leaving Net profit After Tax of $37.4 Billion. This is an effective coporate tax rate of 28.07%.
Not quite the Australian corporate tax rate of 30% but close. (excludes royalties)