Mineral tax will live shorter. On top of that tax revenues for the government would be low, too. That leads to a Laffer curve-shaped function of tax revenue for the government, in which the “optimal level of taxation” is somewhere in the middle. Any mineral tax must be neutral. Neutral is defined as maintaining incentives for investors to exploit minerals. Therefore, the revenues must exceed the costs. Furthermore, the government must be able to rely on the amount of tax money it receives, therefore, the tax imposed must be as certain and as steady as possible. Often, governments decide to use a
George Laffer George Laffer George Richards Laffer (14 September 1866 – 7 December 1933) was an Australian politician. He was member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1913 until 1933, representing the electorate of Alexandra for the Liberal Union, and its successors the Liberal Federation and Liberal and Country League. He was a minister in the Barwell government, and was Speaker of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1927 until 1930. Laffer was born at Coromandel Valley into a fruit-growing family, his father having emigrated from Cornwall in 1840. He continued in the family business, and was actively involved