Rishi Sunak windfall tax

The Chancellor has warned that he can still implement a windfall tax if oil companies fail to ramp up investment.

In 1997, then-Chancellor Gordon Brown announced a windfall tax on the “excess profits” of utilities following their privatisation by previous Conservative governments. BP chief executive Bernard Looney said that a windfall tax is not “going to incentivise more investment” and many ministers agree. Last month it extended the tax hike on companies benefiting from higher rates would remain in place. Italy has also imposed extra taxes on utilities’ profits. A windfall tax is a one-off raid on the profits of a company. It estimates that a year-long rise in the tax bills of energy giants would raise £1.2bn for the Exchequer. Even if all of this money was ringfenced for household energy bills relief, this would be a drop in the ocean compared to the pain facing families.

Ministers had previously vetoed the idea of a windfall tax for dealing with the cost of living crisis, saying it would not help lower bills.

“Nothing is ever off the table in these things. Take a print or digital subscription to The Big Issue and provide a critical lifeline to our work. The Big Issue has collaborated with Social Stories Club to create limited edition gift hampers. That money is desperately needed to cut energy bills.” The Telegraph has cited “Treasury sources” as saying the chancellor’s comments are intended as a “warning shot” to oil and gas companies to begin investing in the UK soon. Despite these large profits, the oil company paid no tax on its operations in the North Sea in 2021 for the fourth year in a row thanks to tax refunds paid by the UK Treasury for the decommissioning of old oil platforms.

Rishi Sunak has told the cabinet that interest rates are expected to increase to 2.5 per cent over the next year as he warned ministers against borrowing ...

A windfall tax on energy companies is one of Labour’s flagship policies. Energy companies have seen their profits surge at a time of record oil and gas prices. Rishi Sunak threatens energy firms with windfall tax

CHANCELLOR Rishi Sunak has suggested he could back a windfall tax on oil and gas companies, despite Boris Johnson saying it would “clobber”…

But it would be silly to do that now.” “With the Chancellor heaping them with the biggest tax burden in 70 years on top of that, people are paying more and getting less. However, there is broad support for the plan from other parties. “Families are already feeling the cost-of-living crisis, hit by record rises in energy prices, record high petrol prices and staggeringly steep hikes in the cost of food and essentials. He said: “What I would say is that if we don’t see that type of investment coming forward and companies are not going to make those investments in our country and energy security, then of course that’s something I would look at and nothing is ever off the table in these things.” He added: “The main factor against this windfall tax—alongside the uncertainty that it would bring to the industry, its investors and the workers whose families have the very same cost of living worries that have been discussed in this debate—is the restrictions that it would place on the oil and gas industry’s vital contribution to driving forward the energy transition to net zero.”

In an interview on Mumsnet, Rishi Sunak said: “We will see what happens with the price cap in the autumn, I know that people are anxious about us and they are ...

“We are quite lucky in this country in that we have got quite a lot of energy here in the UK and I think what we have realised is we need to invest more in that and that’s why we haven’t gone for some extra tax because what I don’t want to do is to discourage more investment in our energy supplies, we want to improve our energy security so we are not relying on importing lots of things from abroad.” “Most companies pay around 20% in their corporation tax, the energy companies pay double that, they pay 40% already, so the reason we haven’t gone down that road is really simple. “But it would be silly to do that now or last month or the month before when we don’t know exactly what the situation in the autumn is going to be.”