Federal budget 2016 extends 15% mining exploration tax credit to March 2017, providing break for junior miners

Canadian junior mining companies can breathe a sigh of relief as Budget 2016 extends a tax break for exploration firms that finance their exploration using so-called “flow-through” shares.

The federal government has extended the 15 percent mineral exploration tax credit, that was slated to expire on March 31, ’till the end of March 2017.

“With all this is a challenging here we are at junior mining companies, the federal government provides support their mineral exploration efforts by extending the loan for an additional year,” your budget documents state.

Flow-through shares allow individual taxpayers to book their share of a company’s exploration expenses as credits against their personal incomes. Junior exploration companies tend to have little if any revenue, so they’re usually happy to “renounce” their claim to exploration expenses.

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The mineral exploration tax credit is available to invest in “grassroots” mineral exploration in Canada.

Extending the mineral exploration tax credit will definitely cost the federal government about $20 million in lost revenue within the next two fiscal years. That’s since the credit uses a so-called “look-back” rule which allows funds raised in a single calendar year with the benefit of the loan to become spent on eligible exploration projects within the following calendar year.

Financial Post
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