Fellow Investors,

for those of you out there that perhaps think Bolivia's new 37.5% corporate tax on mining is excessive and are worried that Ecuador will impose such a tax on mining. Lets put this in perspective with the rest of the supposed politically stable and non corrupt governments around the world hahahahahaha.

Lets not forget that labour is very cheap in South America and there are not all the other taxes plus government programs that add sustantially to companies operating costs in west.

37.5% Tax in Bolivia is still cheap compared to many nations in te world.

Regards,

F.F.  

KPMG Corporate Tax Rate Survey for 2006 — Downward Trend Continues

(Toronto, Friday, April 7, 2006) – KPMG has released its thirteenth annual survey of corporate tax rates around the world. The survey shows that Canada’s rate of 36.1% is higher than the EU average of 25.04% and the OECD average of 28.31%, but still below the U.S. rate of 40%. Despite a general global trend toward falling tax rates, Canada’s rate is unchanged from 2005.

The KPMG survey covers 86 countries, including the 30 member countries of the OECD, the 25 EU countries, 19 countries in the Asia Pacific region and 19 countries in Latin America.

The countries with the highest rates were Japan at 40.69% and the U.S. at 40%.

Overall, the survey results show that the global trend towards lower corporate tax rates over the last several years remains strong. Of the 86 countries surveyed, the majority had either kept their tax rates unchanged since 2004 or had reduced them.

Rate reductions were most pronounced in Europe, where the average statutory corporate income tax rate fell to 25.04% from 25.32%, thanks to rate cuts in six EU member states including France, Greece and the Netherlands. This rate compares with average rates of 28.31% for the OECD countries, 28.25% for Latin America and 29.99% in the Asia Pacific region.

The largest reductions were in Barbados (down 5% to 25%), Albania (down 3% to 20%), Israel (down 3% to 31%) and India (down 2.9% to 33.66%).

Countries reporting significant increases were the Dominican Republic (up 5% to 30%) and the Philippines (up 3% to 35%).

Of course, a simple comparison of tax rates is not enough to assess the relative tax burdens imposed by different governments. Corporations need to consider the method of calculating the profits to which the tax applies, among other factors