According to a report, the new British government wants to significantly expand its excess profit tax for oil and gas companies. This is expected to rise from 25 to 30 percent, the Times reported, after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Treasury Secretary Jeremy Hunt had previously agreed on the details of the budget expected in mid-November.
In addition, the excess profit tax should be fixed by 2028 instead of 2026 and will also affect electricity producers in the future, it said. An excess profit tax is an additional tax on greatly increased corporate profits.
According to The Times, the government estimates that this will generate tax revenue of around £40 billion (around €46.2 billion) over the next five years. Companies like Shell and BP had recently booked billions in surpluses and are seen as winners of the crisis.
Sunak introduced the excess profit tax when he was Treasury Secretary under ex-Prime Minister Johnson. Now his government is preparing not only companies, but also private individuals for higher taxes. The enormous expenditure due to the corona pandemic and massively increased energy prices could not be counter-financed by cuts in other areas alone, it was said recently.
