Quote Originally Posted by Vindec View Post
The Labour Party has come up with a brilliant wheeze which many people believe. Let's use a windfall tax to pay for the energy increases and tax these nasty companies they say. That will go down well with the population.

The reality is that a second windfall tax (over and above the 65% they already pay) won't go anywhere near paying for the energy crisis but who cares if that brilliant idea will get one over on the Tories. They must think we are dumb but clearly the population must be if they really believe a second windfall tax is the answer to their problems. The amounts of money required are eye watering and it is only economic growth that will get us out of this mess. The public won't end up paying that much (only 30.3% of income tax is accounted for in government revenue) which is the belief of many. If the economy stagnates we are stuffed.
The "brilliant wheeze" is gullible people like you thinking these companies pay a tax rate of 65%.

Oil and gas companies pay 30% corporation tax and a supplementary rate of 10% They can reduce this by factoring in losses and decommissioning North Sea oil platforms. As a consequence, companies like BP and Shell have paid virtually no tax in the UK. They have very clever accountants and the fact that our current prime minister used to be one is purely coincidental

In fact both companies have actually received more money back from the goverment than tax paid every year since 2015.

In the three months to June this year Shell made a profit of £9bn and BP £6.9bn.

Explain again why we shouldn't have a windfall tax?

Can you explain the recent comments from the CEO of BP (I think) who stated that his company was like a cash machine and had more money than they knew what to do with?