Chief financial officer Chris Lynch said: “Rio Tinto makes a significant contribution to public finances in the countries in which it operates around the globe.

“In 2016, we paid US$4 billion in taxes and royalties to governments, which takes our total direct tax contributions over US$50 billion since 2010.”

We pay the vast majority of our Group taxes in the countries in which we have mining and processing operations. In 2016, US$2.9 billion of our total tax payment was made in Australia.

Our investors, communities and other stakeholders deserve to understand in clear terms the amount of tax we pay in each country. We believe our report presents the type of information that most of our stakeholders want to know, with our aim being to make the information more accessible and understandable.

Committed to transparency

At Rio Tinto, we believe that transparency makes good business sense.

“We publish this report on a voluntary basis, as part our commitment to tax transparency,” said Chris.

Rio Tinto pioneered the practice of corporate tax transparency in 2010 and has been recognised as best-practice in tax reporting and transparency among multinational companies.

The disclosures contained in our Taxes paid report are consistent with our support for the principles of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). The report also includes information required to be disclosed under the Australian Voluntary Tax Transparency Code and the UK Large Business Tax Compliance requirements.

Rio Tinto’s tax planning conforms to our corporate values and our global code of business conduct, The way we work. Integrity is a core business value, and we aim to act fairly, honestly and consistently in what we say and do.

Explore our Taxes paid in 2016 report to learn more about our economic contributions, our tax strategy and governance, and the detail of the payments we make.