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/ By Ilan Shavit /

Israel Chemicals Fertilizer president and CEO Dani Chen has delivered to Minister of the Economy Naftali Bennett NIS 400 million in potash royalties for 2012. The company pays 16 % of its pretax profit in royalties.”Israel Chemicals transfers NIS 1.5 billion as the government’s take, in the form of direct taxes, royalties, and the dividends tax, amounting to 41% of the company’s profits in Israel, ” said Israel Chemicals Ltd. (TASE: ICL) in a statement today. “In the coming years, Israel Chemicals will pay even more, as a result of changes in the tax policy toward the company, and the government’s take will reach 56%. In addition, the government receives up to an additional NIS 2 billion in indirect taxes on the company’s activity.”Israel Chemicals posted a profit of $1.3 billion in 2012, and it received a tax break of $121.3 million (NIS 450 million). In the past five years, the company has received a tax break totaling $691.2 million (NIS 2.6 billion).

In the past five years, Israel Chemicals has paid $379.9 million in royalties, just over half of the tax break over the same period. In this period, the company posted a profit of over $1 billion a year, for a total of $6.6 billion.

Israel Chemicals paid $221 million in taxes in 2012, for an effective tax rate of 14.4%, compared with the companies’ tax rate of 25%.