What makes mining & energy different from an ordinary filing?
Resource projects attract sector-specific regimes — royalties, resource taxes and offshore provisions — that sit alongside ordinary corporate tax and are not covered by the treaty in the same way. An ordinary preparer applies the general rule and stops there, which is how the relief in the specific provision goes unclaimed.
Can you work with my existing accountant?
That is how most of these engagements run. They keep the domestic file, we take the cross-border piece, and the boundary is agreed in writing so nothing is done twice or missed.
Do mining royalties count as income tax for foreign tax credit purposes?
Often not. A royalty or resource charge is usually imposed on production, on gross value at the pit head, or on a notional profit computed under a resource statute rather than on taxable income. A credit system asks whether the foreign charge is an income tax in substance, and a levy on volume or gross value frequently fails that test. Where it fails, the charge is not creditable, and relief comes only as a deduction in computing profit, if at all. The answer has to be reached charge by charge, reading what each one is imposed on rather than what the invoice calls it. A single project can pay several charges under one statute where some qualify and others do not.
Who withholds payroll tax for a rotational crew flying between countries?
Employment income is generally taxable where the duties are physically performed, so a fly-in crew can create an obligation in the host country from the first rotation, whatever the contract of employment says. A treaty may relieve the employee, but relief is claimed, not automatic, and it does not by itself remove the employer's duty to register and report. The practical position is that the entity bearing the cost of the crew, and the entity directing their work, both need looking at. Where a contractor supplies the crew, the question shifts to whether the contractor or the operator is the real employer. We set the registrations up before the first rotation where we can.
Is a provincial or state resource tax covered by the tax treaty?
A treaty applies only to the taxes it lists, plus taxes that are substantially similar and later introduced. Royalties, production levies and offshore charges generally sit outside that list, which means treaty articles on business profits, on relief from double taxation and on the mutual agreement procedure do not reach them. So a project can be fully protected on its corporate tax and entirely exposed on the resource charges sitting beside it. That is the part most models miss, because the corporate rate is the number everybody quotes. Read the taxes-covered article against the actual charges the project pays before assuming relief exists.
Do we withhold tax on cross-border equipment lease payments?
Possibly. Payments for the use of industrial, commercial or scientific equipment are treated as royalties under a number of treaties, and where that characterisation applies the payment carries withholding on the gross amount, not on the lessor's margin. Domestic law may impose withholding even where the treaty would reduce it, and the reduction has to be claimed with residence documentation in hand. Because drilling rigs, processing plant and haulage fleets are commonly financed rather than bought, this sits on the critical path of the financing rather than being a filing question afterwards. Price it into the lease before signing, since the lessor will usually want the payment grossed up.
Does an exploration camp abroad create a taxable presence for us?
It can. A camp, a core shed or a site office is a fixed place through which business is carried on, and exploration activity conducted from it is rarely preparatory or auxiliary once drilling starts. Duration matters, and so does whether the work is done by your own people or by a contractor acting on your instructions. The awkward cases are the ones where a presence exists for a period, lapses, and resumes on the next programme, because some rules aggregate connected activity across seasons. The consequence is a filing obligation and an attribution exercise on a project generating no revenue yet, which is exactly when nobody expects one.
Can exploration costs be deducted in the country where we drilled?
Most resource systems allow exploration and development expenditure into a pool that is carried forward and relieved against future production income, rather than deducted outright in the year it is spent. The pool rules differ on what qualifies, on the rate at which the pool unwinds and on whether the balance survives a change of control or a transfer of the property. Expenditure incurred by the wrong entity, or before the right entity held the interest, can fall outside the pool altogether. Keeping the spend in the entity that will hold the producing asset is usually the single decision that determines whether the relief ever arrives.
What is double taxation?
Double taxation means the same income being taxed by two authorities. It comes in two forms: juridical, where two countries each tax one person on one amount, and economic, where two different people are taxed on the same underlying profit — a company on its earnings and a shareholder on the dividend paid out of them. Relief comes from a treaty, a foreign tax credit, or an exemption, and which one applies depends on the income type. How to avoid double taxation sets out the routes.
How does a remittance actually work, and is it taxed?
A remittance is a transfer of money, not a category of income, and moving your own funds between your own accounts is not what creates tax. What can create tax is the income behind the money and the rules of the country it leaves. India, for instance, collects tax at source when a resident individual remits abroad under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and requires certification before certain payments leave. The transfer is the trigger for paperwork rather than for tax. See the LRS and tax collected at source.
