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Financial Benefits

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, badly designed fiscal policies and tax incentives, or aggressive tax planning by multinationals.

Fairly collecting revenue and sharing benefits also builds trust that 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 to build and administer mining fiscal regimes measures that secure their fair share of revenues from the sector.

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Global Mining Tax Initiative

The Global Mining Tax Initiative (GMTI) is a distinct program offering of the IGF that draws on our broad experience working with IGF member governments.

This specialized and comprehensive work program covers fiscal policy for the entire mining value chain, from exploration and development to mining, processing, mineral sales, and mine closure.

The GMTI focuses on all aspects of fiscal policy, including taxes, royalties, and financial modelling and has unique expertise on international tax challenges related to the global mining sector, which is dominated by multinational companies.

This initiative builds on the expertise and experience developed under the IGF-OECD BEPS in Mining program. 

How Do We Help Governments?

  • Providing guidance  We publish innovative research and practical tools for officials working on complex fiscal issues in the mining sector.
  • Offering technical assistance  We build capacity through training, provide legal and policy advice, and support tax audits by working directly with government officials in mining, finance, and revenue authorities.
  • Convening and collaborating We advance research and thought leadership to inform global and regional standards and contribute to impactful multistakeholder events.

The Future of Resource Taxation

The IGF partnered with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) 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

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

As part of the BEPS in Mining Program, this practice note aims to increase policy-makers’ knowledge of the process of determining the value of exported minerals.
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Tax Incentives in Mining: Minimising risks to revenue

As part of the BEPS in Mining Program, this practice note looks at tax incentives in the mining sector to help governments design fiscal regimes for the mining industry that raise suff
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Limiting the Impact of Excessive Interest Deductions on Mining Revenue

As part of our BEPS in Mining Program, this document responds to a concern of many developing countries that multinational enterprises use debt “excessively” in mineral-producing c
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Blogs, Announcements, and Other Posts

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 Invite Public Comments on Draft Guidance Documents to Help Governments Avoid Revenue Ri

The IGF and OECD are seeking public comments on two resources designed to support developing countries in addressing the transfer pricing challenges faced when pricing minerals.

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.

The Future of Resource Taxation Under the Africa Mining Vision

The Intergovernmental Forum on Mining (IGF), the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), and the Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA) hosted this webinar to discuss transformations in the

The IGF receives programmatic funding to support our work on financial benefits from the following organizations:

  • Ford Foundation
  • Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of the United Kingdom
  • French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs
  • Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation
  • Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation