CIOT/IFS Online Debate: Is it time for a windfall tax?

Do ‘windfall taxes’ have a place in a modern tax system? If so, what are the criteria for their use? Should the UK introduce a windfall tax now on the profits of oil and gas companies? Should we have introduced one on ‘excess profits’ generated by the pandemic? Are there lessons we can learn from past windfall taxes, such as the one introduced in 1997 on the ‘excess profits’ of the privatised utilities?

These are some of the questions our expert panel considered for a lively debate on this highly topical issue.

Our panel included:

• Stuart Adam - Senior Research Economist, Institute for Fiscal Studies
• Michael Jacobs - Professorial Fellow, Sheffield Political Economy Research Institute (SPERI)
• Chris Sanger - Global Government and Tax Risk Leader, EY, and policy adviser on the 1997 windfall tax on the privatised utilities
• Heather Self - Partner, Blick Rothenberg (and Group Tax Director at Scottish Power 2002-6)

Chair: Peter Rayney – President, Chartered Institute of Taxation

Click here to watch the event back.