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TECHNICAL NOTE 1 METHODOLOGY


INTRODUCTION

1 The industry estimates in this publication are produced using a combination of ABS directly collected data and Business Income Tax (BIT) data sourced from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).

2 The directly collected data have been reported by a sample of mining businesses, as recorded on the ABS Business Register (ABSBR). The ABS uses an economic statistics units model on the ABSBR to describe the characteristics of businesses, and the structural relationships between related businesses. Within large and diverse business groups, the units model is used also to define reporting units that can provide data to the ABS at suitable levels of detail.

STATISTICAL UNITS DEFINED ON THE ABS BUSINESS REGISTER

3 The current economic statistics units model was introduced in mid 2002, to better use the information available as a result of The New Tax System (TNTS). This units model allocates businesses to one of two sub-populations. The vast majority of businesses are in what is called the ATO maintained population, while the remaining businesses are in the ABS maintained population. Together, these two sub-populations make up the ABSBR population.

ATO MAINTAINED POPULATION

4 Most businesses and organisations in Australia need to obtain an Australian Business Number (ABN). They are then included on the whole-of-government register of businesses, the Australian Business Register (ABR), which is maintained by the ATO. Most of these businesses have simple structures; therefore, the unit registered for an ABN will satisfy ABS statistical requirements. For these businesses, the ABS has aligned its statistical units structure with the ABN unit. The businesses with simple structures constitute the ATO maintained population, and the ABN unit is used as the statistical unit for all ABS economic collections.

ABS MAINTAINED POPULATION

5 For the population of businesses where the ABN unit is not suitable for ABS statistical requirements, the ABS maintains its own units structure through direct contact with the business. These businesses constitute the ABS maintained population. This population consists typically of large, complex and diverse businesses. The statistical units model described below caters for such businesses.

Enterprise group: This is a unit covering all the operations in Australia of one or more legal entities under common ownership and/or control. It covers all the operations in Australia of legal entities which are related in terms of the current Corporations Law (as amended by the Corporations Legislation Amendment Act 1991), including legal entities such as companies, trusts and partnerships. Majority ownership is not required for control to be exercised.
Enterprise: An institutional unit comprising:
(i) a single legal entity or business entity, or
(ii) more than one legal entity or business entity within the same enterprise group and in the same institutional sub-sector (i.e. they are all classified to a single Standard Institutional Sector Classification of Australia (SISCA) sub-sector).

Type of activity unit (TAU): The TAU comprises one or more business entities, sub-entities or branches of a business entity within an enterprise group that can report production and employment data for similar economic activities. When a minimum set of data items are available, a TAU is created which covers all the operations within an industry subdivision (and the TAU is classified to the relevant subdivision of the ANZSIC). Where a business cannot supply adequate data for each industry, a TAU is formed which contains activity in more than one industry subdivision.

TAUs

7 All units in the ABS maintained population (i.e. TAUs) classified to Mining were eligible to be selected for direct collection. Direct collection of data from these units is necessary because:

• many large and complex employing businesses have more than one legal entity, making it difficult to identify all legal entities for that business in the BIT data
• BIT data do not include all of the detailed information that the ABS requires from large and complex businesses.
• 'tax exempt' businesses that are not required to complete business income tax returns would otherwise not contribute to the statistics.

• First, ABN units with annualised Business Activity Statement (BAS) total sales (used in lieu of EAS total income) at or greater than the cut-offs set for individual ANZSIC categories were eligible to be selected for direct collection of data by the ABS. If selected, they were sent the same mail out questionnaire for completion that was sent to selections from the ABS maintained population.
• Second, ABN units with annualised BAS total sales below the cut-offs were excluded from direct collection. For these units, BIT data were obtained and added to the directly collected estimates to produce the statistics in this publication.

10 For 2005-06, a cut-off of:

• $1.5m applied for ANZSIC Subdivision 12
• $1m applied for ANZSIC Subdivision 11 and Classes 1311, 1313, 1315, and 1316
• $0.5m applied for ANZSIC Group 152 and Class 1314
• $0.25m applied for ANZSIC Groups 141 and 142, and Class 1319.

PRODUCING MINING INDUSTRY ESTIMATES

12 Therefore, the 2005-06 mining industry estimates have been derived as follows:

• A sample survey was used to estimate the contribution of
  • all businesses in the ABS maintained population
  • those businesses at or above the cut-offs in the ATO maintained population
  • 'tax exempt' businesses, that are not required to complete business income tax returns (and so would otherwise not contribute to the statistics)
• For the balance of businesses (i.e. in the ATO maintained population below the cut-offs for their ANZSIC category), their contribution was sourced from BIT data, with some more detailed breakdowns produced using proportional relationships derived from the sample survey. The derivation of employment estimates is discussed below.

Contribution to sales and service income(a)
	ATO BIT data	Directly collected data	Total
ABSBR unit	%	%	%
ABN units	0.8	9.2	10.0
TAUs	-	90.0	90.0
Total	0.8	99.2	100.0
- nil or rounded to zero (including null cells)
(a) Includes rent, leasing and hiring income

EMPLOYMENT ESTIMATES

14 One implication of the use of BIT data in these statistics is that no direct measure of employment is available for those units which contribute to the estimates through the BIT source. This is because the ATO does not collect information about employment numbers. Unlike financial variables, which have a direct relationship to the data available from the BIT files, employment data are not amenable to being modelled using the same techniques. Hence a different methodology is used in order to estimate employment for those units whose data are sourced from the BIT files. For each business, an estimate of employee numbers is derived from its value of wages and salaries (if any) using industry averages. For each unincorporated business, these employee numbers are then added to an estimate of its number of working proprietors or partners, to produce an estimate of the total employment of the business. These estimates are then aggregated to the directly collected data to produce the estimates in this publication.