“Through our core activities, Implats’ operations make a significant positive contribution to socioeconomic development in both South Africa and Zimbabwe

Employee wages and benefits
R10 224 million

Dividends paid to shareholders
Rnil

Skills and training spend in South Africa
R523 million

Skills development in Zimbabwe
US$5.3 million

Investments in socio-economic development initiatives in our communities

In South Africa
R83 million

In Zimbabwe
US$5.1 million

 

Taxation

Our approach to taxation

Tax is a critical element of the overall economic contribution we make to host governments and communities. Our tax contributions can play an important role in the economic development of the countries in which we operate. The amount of tax we generate and pay to governments, and our general approach to tax and tax disclosure, are of considerable interest to many of our stakeholders.

We are committed to ensuring good tax governance. Our operations are required to comply with their legal obligations and responsibilities in relation to their tax affairs and make such payments as are required by law within all countries of operation. Our approach to tax supports the principles of transparency and proactive engagement with tax authorities, governments and other relevant stakeholders. Implats has supported the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative on the disclosure of payments since 2012.

Our tax practitioners are committed to act in accordance with sound business principles in supporting commercial decision-makers and ensuring that the business is compliant in both the collection and payment of taxes to governments. Tax matters are governed through the finance department and oversight is provided by the audit committee of the board.

Tax regime developments

We recognise government efforts to become more efficient and effective in the collection and distribution of taxes and to ensure that the tax regime is applied in an equitable and consistent manner. In the year under review there were two significant tax reforms in our host jurisdictions.

The Government of Zimbabwe introduced a 15% export tax on unrefined PGMs in January 2015, earlier than expected. The tax was first proposed in 2013 and planned for implementation in January 2017 to give companies time to build the necessary smelting and refining plants. Talks between the government and the industry in Zimbabwe have been ongoing, while plans for a base metal refinery in Zimbabwe are being progressed. In August 2015, the Government of Zimbabwe announced the deferment of the export tax levy for another two years to 2017.

Tax policy in South Africa has been subject to broad review by the Davis Tax Committee. The findings of this committee are being reviewed by the Treasury Department that falls under the Reserve Bank of South Africa. Under the leadership of the Chamber of Mines and certain professional bodies, Implats has proactively engaged with the committee and fully supports its recognition of the need to consider tax policy as part of a wider social and economic framework.

Our contribution

Mining is a major contributor to national economies. In recent years, however, a challenging business context, compounded by a complex labour relations environment in South Africa, increased input costs. Despite the diminishing commodity prices, there was an increase in mining revenue streams and a resultant tax contribution increase compared to previous years (10% and 27% for South Africa and Zimbabwe respectively), further demonstrating the important contribution mining makes towards gross domestic production and the fiscus.

Taxes paid directly to government by category and country^*

	South Africa     (Rm)**	Zimbabwe       (US$m)***
Profit taxes	190	61.4
Employee PAYE	1 434	16
Royalties taxes	80	22
Total	1 704	99.4

*	Reporting in line with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI).
**	Excludes Two Rivers.
***	Excludes Mimosa.