Here’s Oxfam’s press release from earlier this month: To Oxfam’s credit, they now link to the methodology from the press release: So a company has made a “windfall profit” – and gets taxed at 90% – if its 2021-2022 average profit is 10% above the 2017-2020 average profit. Here’s a simple math question: how fast […]

Only 5% of Shell’s profit is made in the UK, so we should be unsurprised that only a small amount of its huge profits are taxed in the UK. But when energy companies make “windfall profits”, at the expense of the rest of us, there is a case that normal principles shouldn’t apply, and the windfall should be taxed.

The EU Tax Observatory have just published an excess profits tax proposal which would tax listed energy companies on 33% of the increase in their market capitalisation in 2022. EU headquartered companies get fully taxed. Non-EU headquartered companies get taxed pro-rata to their sales in the EU. So, for example, if the UK was to […]

In May, the Government announced the Energy Profits Levy – a windfall tax on UK oil and gas companies. It has two significant flaws, which together mean the tax will raise almost £5bn less than it could have done. This post is an explanation and expansion of points I make in Panorama’s programme on the […]