BHP defends paying no tax on Singapore marketing operations

By Melanie Burton

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - BHP Billiton (BHP.AX) (BHP.L) confirmed on Wednesday it paid no tax on its global marketing base in Singapore, but said it was not the only reason for using the island state as a commodities trading hub and that it paid a fair share of tax worldwide.

Australia's tax office is investigating the mining firm and rival Rio Tinto (RIO.AX) (RIO.L) for shifting billions of dollars in iron ore profits through marketing hubs in Singapore.

"(Singapore) has a very attractive tax rate. We're not ashamed of that. Obviously we would like to minimise the amount of tax that we pay, so it is part of the attraction of Singapore," BHP Chief Financial Officer Peter Beaven told a news briefing on Wednesday.

But he said it was not the only attraction of Singapore and cited its proximity to the majority of BHP's customers as well as its good logistics as reasons behind choosing the location.

When asked if the company paid zero tax on its Singapore marketing operations, Beaven said: "That's correct."

Beaven said that there was a small mark up on commodities produced globally and sold into Singapore, but this reflected an "appropriate value add" by its marketing team that helped to get the best deal for producers and boosted the value of commodities like iron ore taxed in Australia.

Less than 1 percent of the total profit generated from Australia was not taxed in Australia, he said.

BHP has other business divisions located in Singapore, on which it paid a small amount of tax, he added.

"It's a place that's very pleasant to live in, so we can attract the best talent on a global basis," he added.

The company paid $5.2 billion in taxes, royalties and other payments to the Australian government, Beaven said, part of a total global economic contribution last financial year of $35.7 billion, which also included community contributions, payments to suppliers, wages and employee benefits and dividends.

On tax alone, he said the miner paid more than $7.3 billion to governments in the 2015 financial year.

"We pay what we regard as a very fair amount of tax," said Beaven.

He said the company's global adjusted effective tax rate was 31.8 percent, above the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average of around 25 percent.

Australia's Taxation Office said it did not comment on issues surrounding specific companies for confidentiality reasons.

(Editing by Ed Davies)