Resource rent

Resource rent is rent paid for the use of natural resources such as coastal space, minerals, waterfalls, rivers, oil reserves and wind channels. Some countries levy resource rent taxes that come in addition to corporate taxes for businesses that use natural resources. Resource rents have been called a "natural dividend" that should belong to the people who own the natural resources that create the surplus wealth. Examples include the Norwegian resource rent taxes on aquaculture, hydro- and wind-power generation industries for their use of coastal waterways, waterfalls and wind channels that come in addition to regular corporate taxes. Proposals have been made to also charge resource rent taxes on datacentres for their use of energy.

In economics, rent is a surplus value after all costs and normal returns have been accounted for, i.e. the difference between the price at which an output from a resource can be sold and its respective extraction and production costs, including normal return. This concept is usually termed economic rent but when referring to rent in natural resources, it is commonly called resource rent. It can also be conceptualised as abnormal or supernormal profit.