Mineral tax

A mineral tax is any tax, excise or other government-imposed fee on mineral resources, such as crude oil or ores. The taxation of minerals serves as a price to extract scarce resources, such as petroleum and crude oil, which are owned by the government. By taxing minerals, the government is able to secure a certain share of the minerals.^[1] Mineral taxes should possess neutral characteristics, to maintain incentives for investors and maximize the tax revenue for the government, while minimizing the variability and uncertainty of the amount of tax money collected. Since the 1950s it is more common to use special taxes like royalty taxes with ordinary taxes.^[1] Taxing minerals is the more economic approach to incentivise environmental thinking and an alternative to intervene in the market directly.