Tax grab the latest twist in Tinkler’s tale

The Australian Taxation Office has seized money from a company associated with controversial mining entrepreneur Nathan Tinkler, after it failed to pay $129,000 in tax related to royalty payments from the Middlemount mine in Queensland, according to the Australian Financial Review.

On November 26, the ATO issued a point-in-time garnishee notice on Oceltip’s Westpac account, one of Tinkler’s private companies, after it failed to respond to a notice from it earlier in the month.

Tinkler’s former business partner, Matthew Higgins, also has an interest in Oceltip, which was set up as the vehicle for royalties flowing from the Middlemount mine, jointly owned by Yancoal and Peabody.

The royalty, of which Tinkler is entitled to 75% and Higgins 25%, has a net present value of $28 million to $34 million.

Fears of iron ore price drop persist

Expectations that the price of iron ore is set to fall are mounting as expanding supply points to a drop in value, according to the Australian Financial Review.

Markets are still evaluating whether demand from key buyers such as China will rise sufficiently to offset some of the increased production.

Broker CLSA in its monthly steel analysis found that most of China’s large steel mills had aggressively built up their inventories of raw materials over the past few months, including iron ore and coking coal.

Green tape risks ‘choking $200B in export projects’

Export projects worth $200 billion are being shackled by overlapping state and federal laws, according to a new report, which challenges both major parties to remove green tape that discourages huge investments, according to The Australian.

Gas exporters are warning of long-term damage to the nation's resources boom as the federal government adds to duplicate regulation rather than removing it in the way it promised less than a year ago.