Monday, May 3, 2010

Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX) Takes Hit on Proposed New Tax

Mining companies, including giant Barrick Gold (TSE:ABX), plummeted today on news the Australian government is going to levy a new tax on the earnings of companies producing raw materials.

The new tax is an extraordinary 40 percent and will be forced on companies generating great profits.

This is assinine to me, as the reasoning is to take the revenue in order to reduce the overall corporate tax in Australia from 30 percent to 28 percent. They're also going to take it and add the revenue to the retirement savings of Australian workers.

It never ceases to amaze how incredibly ignorant governments are, as they take from among the best producers in the country and redistribute it to the less productive.

Barrick Gold has taken the hit because they have several mines in Australia.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know its always something. Some politician always has to think of some way to screw the stock holder.

Anonymous said...

Time to look elsewhere to do business. Australia just became too expensive.