Freehold mineral tax

Legislation

The Freehold Mineral Tax Act allows the collection of the Freehold Mineral Tax (FMT) for the Province’s general revenue fund, the Freehold Mineral Tax Regulation provides additional information.

FMT is:

• An annual tax on petroleum and natural gas mineral rights within provincial boundaries, not owned by the Government of Alberta.
• Assessed on revenue derived from production from freehold oil and gas properties.
• Calculated annually on calendar year production collected in March of the following calendar year. Payment of the tax is due April 25.
• Levied on each owner of a petroleum or natural gas mineral right as shown on the estate fee simple Certificate of Title.

Yearly FMT Cycle
Data is gathered on producing oil and gas wells on freehold lands from January to December.
Industry calculates and reports unit values on freehold properties with producing wells. If there are no industry submitted values, Crown calculated default values are used in the tax calculation.

Illustration of the Yearly FMT cycle (PDF, 38 KB) legislated dates are noted by * in the file.

Default unit values

Default unit values for gas are calculated at 80% of the weighted average of the Crown gas reference prices. Oil and bitumen are calculated on a weighted average of the Crown oil par prices.

See the Freehold Mineral Tax Unit Value Guide and the Summary of client inquiries (PDF, 88 KB) for more information about how the unit values are calculated and an overview of the FMT program.

Final default unit values as of December 31, 2022:

History

Your family may own freehold mineral rights if they settled in Alberta in the late 1800’s or early 1900’s, about 8% of Alberta’s mineral rights are privately owned.

To learn how freehold owners obtained their mineral rights see mineral ownership.

FMT has been levied since 1938. The tax was introduced to provide freehold monies for the province’s regulatory body, the Alberta Energy Regulator. From 1938 to 1972 the tax was an acreage tax, assessed on petroleum, natural gas, coal and salt. Since 1973 coal and salt are no longer taxed. From 1973 to 1982 the tax was assessed based on reserves. The current FMT legislation was introduced in 1983.

Owners looking for more information can contact the Freehold Owners Association it is a federally-incorporated, non-profit corporation registered to operate in Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba that acts as a common voice in the interests of freehold owners. The Farmers' Advocate is also available for public information meetings on subjects such as surface rights, seismic activity, mineral leasing, trespass and other topics that may be of concern to the agricultural community.

Statistics

The following statistics pertain to wells and production in freehold mineral rights.

Table 1. Net Tax Levied (Calendar Year)

Table 2. Freehold Wells (as of December 31); and Production (Calendar Year)

Contact

Connect with the FMT help desk:

Hours: 8:15 am to 4:30 pm (open Monday to Friday, closed statutory holidays)
Phone: 780-427-6000
Toll free: 310-0000 before the phone number (in Alberta)
Fax: 780-427-0865
Email: [email protected]