Resource rent taxes: The politics of legislation

This paper concerns the Australian Government s call for a resource rent tax for iron ore and coal; and extension of the existing rent tax for petroleum. Our main objective has been to address the Australian Government s conduct of the tax reform consultation process for its proposed resource rent tax legislation. To ascertain the Government s effectiveness in the consultative process toward legislative design, our focus is on the contentious issue of the method for valuation of starting-base assets (or capital assets) because of their deductibility from revenue subject to tax. This paper analyses relevant stakeholder submissions to the Government s request for input on the valuation of starting-base assets for Australia s proposed resource rent taxes. We use the perspective of stakeholder theory and grounded theory methodology. The results of our research indicate that the Australian Government has lacked effectiveness in this consultation process. The contribution of this paper is of a grounded theory that frames three recommendations to improve the consultation process. We anticipate that the adoption of these recommendations would enhance the legitimacy of outcomes and promote taxpayer confidence in the resource rent taxes as well as eventually improve compliance.