Sept 25 (Reuters) - Silver Wheaton Corp SLW.TO said it
received reassessment notices from Canada's tax authorities,
ordering the mining financing company to pay C$353 million
($264.70 million) in back taxes.
The Vancouver-based company said the notices are consistent
with the proposal it had received in July from the revenue
agency to tax about C$715 million of income earned by its
foreign units between 2005 and 2010.
Silver Wheaton, which will be required to make a deposit of
C$177 million with the agency while it pursues a defense, said
it intends to file a notice of objection within the required 90
day period.
Silver Wheaton is the world's biggest mining "streaming"
company. It pioneered streaming, which involves providing
financing to miners for the right to buy a percentage of their
future metal production.
The company, whose shares are down more than 30 percent
since the announcement of proposed tax charge in July, said
earlier this week that it is keen to get its disagreement with
Canada's tax authorities to court as soon as possible but any
resolution is at least two years away.
($1 = 1.3336 Canadian dollars)