Windfall Tax

uttley79

Sorry if im in the wrong place but id like to read about windfall taxes for buissness. Can anybody give me a web page to get this information or direct me to the correct forum please?

Mikeyorks

Do you have the correct terminology? The last windfall tax was imposed on the recently privatised utility companies back in 1997 :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windfall_Tax_(United_Kingdom)

uttley79

It was a personal interest. I was wondering if there were any laws regarding when a company can be asked to make a windfall tax payment. I thought a windfall was made if a company had made too much money. Ive checked your wiki link and it says a sudden unexpected profit which isnt what i thought. I was thinking particularly of the oil giants that have recently announced their profits amidst the economic crisis.

maninthestreet

Any tax levied has to paid, regardless of what name the tax is called. A company that has increased it's profits will pay more Corporation tax to the Government.

Jake'sGran

I just caught sight of an item on TV about Norwich Union who were going to dish out their mountain of money to policy holders but have now changed their minds. It was on Teletext and I did not read it as my husband is already in receipt of his NU pension. That will be very disappointing to anyone still paying in to it. It's most unlikely that windfalls will happen again.

Mikeyorks

uttley79 wrote: »

I was wondering if there were any laws regarding when a company can be asked to make a windfall tax payment. .

No. The Govt of the day (they have been musing over whether to do something about the unexpected bonus last year's oil price created for the major suppliers ... but got no further than that) has to create legislation in the Finance Act. Without that HMRC can't proceed to create charges / due dates etc. And it normally has to be accounted for separately to Corporation Tax .... so it would be a mainly manual operation for HMRC / Treasury.