CHILE: Tax Twist

Chile's government last week carried out a major overhaul of the taxes it imposes on the subsidiaries of the big U.S. companies (Anaconda and Kennecott) that mine 12% of the world's copper there. The new law, scrapping a legal tangle of income taxes, fixed selling prices and exchange-rate penalties that added up to 85% of operating income, provides for an ingenious graduated income tax in reverse. If production stays at present levels, the companies will pay 50% of operating income as their basic tax, plus 25% as a surtax. But the surtax will shrink with increased production and disappear entirely when production is doubled.

Coming at a time when U.S. copper prices are at a near record for peacetime, 36¢ a lb., the law is deftly designed to 1) boost production, 2) bring Chile millions of dollars in new capital and increased revenues, 3) raise company profits, and 4) provide the world with more of Chile's abundant copper. "A victory for good sense," commented a Santiago newspaper.