If they don't, you don't have the foggiest about running a business.
Stg,
Ok, let's see how well you'll manage when Hasbeen's being proven right. I'm not a businessman nor do I want to be one. But do suggest the the past & present systems are working in the face of what's been happening suggests that businesses haven't been managing at all, they merely went with the flow, a flow that's now getting close to the waterfall. Let's see how you manage whilst going down that waterfall. All I am advocating is that everyone pays the same rate of tax, investor or not, businessman or not. Unless of course you insist that our present system is beyond improvement. In that case I suggest you're the one who hasn't the foggiest. I walked around Cairns all week, a city that is supposed to be the centre of the North. Small businesses are having closing down sales en-masse. Yes, a really great system. As long as people don't pay a rate of tax on their final profits that that system is an absolute failure. Write-offs should be measured as income if we really want fairness.

Hasbeen, you are quite correct. The economic tea leaves are full
of uncertainty and prices for both coal and iron ore have been
dropping dramatically.

We also know from the GFC, as soon as prices drop, miners start
to close mines and put development projects on hold. It has already
started, so the land of milk, honey and free handouts might not
have it as easy as many hoped for.

Individual, its pointless debating the topic unless you learn how
to use a calculator.

Yabby,
You just don't want to concede that the present tax is severely flawed yet you're baulking when another idea is proposed. What the gripes is with a flat tax is the fact that those who so heavily depend on write-offs are such poor managers that they couldn't manage without those hand-outs.

Individual, the problem is not a flat tax. Rates can be moved in
various directions, with various outcomes. What you are arguing
for is a turnover tax, rather then a tax on profits.

Now it is a fact of life that there are various ways to construct
a business model. Some rely on huge capital investments and small
profit margins. Many ASX listed companies would earn no more than
5% of sales, as actual profit. Other companies, say companies
selling services, have completely differnt figures, invest little
and have a much larger % as actual profit. To suggest that tax
be paid on turnover rather then profit, simply shows your ignorance.
Write offs establish the difference between turnover and profit.
They are not the same.

Well something we do all agree on is the fact that the wheels on the mining industry are looking a tad loose.

So, is this no sufficient reason to back away from the MRRT?

Labor won't, or simply can't, as their planned return to surplus, in fact, their entire strategic economic plan is modeled around the tax.

Put simply, they are hopeless business managers, and that's scary as they run the biggest business in the county.

As for right offs, indi said workers can't write off their travel to and from work.

Well neither can businesses, unless of cause they have a home office.

Now the tricky bit here is that if one claims to run an office from home, therefore claiming travel from home to work and back, they face a possible capital gains bill when they sell their family home.

Also, if a business has one vehicle, say a mower man starting off, a portion of the expense is deemed 'personal use' and as such can't be written off.

So indi, it's not all just a little boys club as you may think.

As for miners, you don't see them at the markets selling coal by the bucket full, for cash.

Every ton they sell is ligit and they pay the tax as set by the law.

If I have said it once, I've said it a thousand times, f the laws wrong, change it, but don't accuse an industry of not paying their fair share.

BTW I don't think the law is wrong as I appreciate not only the tax the miners pay, but the external jobs they create and the taxes these jobs generate.

Life a we know it will end without mining. Then we will have something to whine about.

paid on turnover rather then profit,
Yabby,
We, the ordinary people on the street have to pay tax on turnover, no write-offs for us. Write-offs are profit because it doesn't get paid for by the recipient of the write-off. Turnover is simply a lousy excuse not to pay one's way. I know this is the way it works but that doesn't make it right. I think it's an appalling system. Only a flat tax rate will bring about equality.
Only a flat tax will distinguish the managers from those who just surf the system. With a flat tax we could rid ourselves of a hell of a lot of parasites & put more more money in the public kitty. If pensioners can manage then managers should also be able to manage. A lot of business managers wouldn't know the meaning of the word manage & it's only because of write-off's that they get through the day, not skill.