Windfall profits tax

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A windfall profits tax is a higher tax rate on profits that ensue from a sudden windfall gain to a particular company or industry. There have been windfall taxes in Mongolia, in Australia, and on wind power in Turkey. [1]

Contents

Australia

In Australia, windfall taxes include:

In both cases, windfall tax originates in High Court decisions that certain state taxes were unconstitutional. Thus, the States were required to repay to the taxpayers the amounts previously collected under these unconstitutional taxes. The purpose of the windfall taxes were to treat these repayments as income to the taxpayer, and impose a Commonwealth tax upon that income at a rate of 100%. Thus, even though the tax laws in question had been declared unconstitutional, the taxpayers effectively did not receive any repayments; rather, the amounts due back to them from the States were taxed by the Commonwealth. The Commonwealth would then repay these amounts to the States, with the result that the States were not in any financial disadvantage.

Mongolia

Mongolia implemented in 2006 taxation on the profits made by mining companies operating in Mongolia. [2] A tax on unsmelted copper and gold concentrate produced in Mongolia, it was the highest windfall tax in the world. [3] The tax was repealed in 2009 and phased out over two years. Repealing the 68% tax law was considered essential to enable foreign mining companies to invest in mineral resources development of Mongolia. [4] [5]

United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, the Windfall Tax was a tax levied on privatised utility companies. A one-off windfall tax on certain bank deposits formed part of the 1981 budget under Margaret Thatcher.

United States

In 1980, the United States enacted the Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act (P.L. 96-223) as part of a compromise between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of crude oil prices. [6] The Act was intended to recoup the revenue earned by oil producers as a result of the sharp increase in oil prices brought about by the OPEC oil embargo. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Act's title was a misnomer. "Despite its name, the crude oil windfall profit tax... was not a tax on profits. It was an excise tax... imposed on the difference between the market price of oil, which was technically referred to as the removal price, and a statutory 1979 base price that was adjusted quarterly for inflation and state severance taxes." [7] [6]

Criticism

Detailed analysis of oil prices, 1970-2004 Oil price chronology.gif
Detailed analysis of oil prices, 1970–2004
U.S. Oil production and imports. US Crude Oil Production and Imports.svg
U.S. Oil production and imports.

In a February 12, 2008 editorial titled "Record Profits Mean Record Taxes," Investor's Business Daily said that regular income taxes already take into account the high profits, and that there's no need to do anything extra to tax or punish the oil companies. As an example, the editorial states "Consider the magnitude of the contributions from Exxon alone. On those 'outlandish' 2006 profits, the company paid federal income taxes of $27.9 billion, leaving it with $39.5 billion in after-tax income. That $27.9 billion was more than was collected from half of individual taxpayers in 2004. In that year, 65 million returns—which represent far more than 65 million taxpayers because of joint returns—paid $27.4 billion in federal income taxes." [8]

In an August 4, 2008 editorial titled "What Is a 'Windfall' Profit?" The Wall Street Journal wrote, "What is a 'windfall' profit anyway? ... Take Exxon Mobil, which on Thursday reported the highest quarterly profit ever and is the main target of any 'windfall' tax surcharge. Yet if its profits are at record highs, its tax bills are already at record highs too... Exxon's profit margin stood at 10% for 2007... If that's what constitutes windfall profits, most of corporate America would qualify... 51 Senators voted to impose a 25% windfall tax on a U.S.-based oil company whose profits grew by more than 10% in a single year... This suggests that a windfall is defined by profits growing too fast.... But if 10% is the new standard, the tech industry is going to have to rethink its growth arc... General Electric profits by investing in the alternative energy technology that President Obama says Congress should subsidize even more heavily than it already does. GE's profit margin in 2007 was 10.3%, about the same as profiteering Exxon's." [9] The profit margin listed in the article for General Electric included all of their diversified industries, of which energy technology is only one among many (such as aircraft engine manufacturing and media production), whereas ExxonMobil deals strictly with oil and gas and therefore has profits solely derived from oil and gas.

Scandinavia

In Sweden, hydro power is subject to a property tax and nuclear power to a capacity-based tax. Both taxes were raised at the beginning of 2008 due to higher windfall profits. Norway similarly imposed, as of 2009, a ground rent tax on hydro-electric power plants, and Finland announced its intention in 2009 to tax nuclear and hydro power as of 2010 or 2011. [10]

On solar power

Rapid drop of photovoltaic equipment in the period 2011 to 2013 has created windfall profits conditions due to lagging response of regulators by adjustment of feed-in tariffs. Regulators in Spain, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania have introduced retroactive incentive reductions. [11] In the Czech Republic a windfall tax has been introduced on solar electricity and further clampdown of solar power companies was considered in 2014. [12]

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Mining in Mongolia

Mining is important to the national economy of Mongolia. Mongolia is one of the 29 resource-rich developing countries identified by the International Monetary Fund and exploration of copper and coal deposits are generating substantial additional revenue. Coal, copper, and gold are the principal reserves mined in Mongolia. Several gold mines are located about 110 kilometres (68 mi) north of Ulaanbaatar, such as Boroo Gold Mine and Gatsuurt Gold Mine. Khotgor Coal Mine is an open-pit coal mining site about 120 kilometres (75 mi) west of Ulaangom. Ömnögovi Province in the south of Mongolia is home to large scale mining projects such as the Tavan Tolgoi coal mine and the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine. Oyu Tolgoi mine is reported to have the potential to boost the national economy by a third but is subject to dispute over how the profits should be shared. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has estimated that 71 percent of the income from the mine would go to Mongolia.

The Windfall tax or windfall profits tax in Mongolia was a taxation on the profits made by mining companies operating in Mongolia. It was implemented in 2006 and was the highest windfall profits tax in the world. It was a tax on unsmelted copper and gold concentrate that was produced in Mongolia. The tax was repealed in 2009 and phased out over two years. Repealing the 68% tax law was considered essential to enable foreign mining companies to invest in mineral resources development of Mongolia.

Petroleum industry in Chad

Chad maintains sizable reserves of crude oil which, alongside agriculture, makes up the largest share of the landlocked former French colony's export revenue. Producing around 100,000 barrels of oil a day, most of Chad's crude comes from its reserves in the Doba Basin in southern Chad where oil was discovered in the early 1970s by foreign drillers. There is an estimated one billion barrels of oil in Chad, most of it being exploited by hundreds of rigs operated by Western companies such as Exxon-Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell. However, many challenges exist to Chad's petroleum industry including but not limited to corruption, internal conflict, and geography. Since Chad is landlocked, most of Chad's oil exports are transported out of the country by a pipeline that leads to the Cameroonian port city of Kribi. This pipeline, owned by a consortium, has come under fire due to allegations of exploitation by international corruption watchdogs, and Chadian politicians. In addition, environmentalists have voiced their concerns over the pipeline's impact on the natural environment, citing several spills.

The Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax Act of 1980 was enacted as part of a compromise between the Carter Administration and the Congress over the decontrol of crude oil prices. The Act was intended to recoup the revenue earned by oil producers as a result of the sharp increase in oil prices brought about by the OPEC oil embargo. According to the Congressional Research Service, the Act's title was a misnomer. "Despite its name, the crude oil windfall profit tax... was not a tax on profits. It was an excise tax... imposed on the difference between the market price of oil, which was technically referred to as the removal price, and a statutory 1979 base price that was adjusted quarterly for inflation and state severance taxes."

References

  1. "Turkey: Wind and solar saved $7 bn in 12 months". Ember. 2022-05-24. Retrieved 2022-05-26.
  2. "2006 Minerals Yearbook - Mongolia" (PDF). United States Geological Survey. p. 15.1. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  3. Pistilli, Melissa (12 March 2012). "Resource Investors to Watch Mongolian Parliamentary Elections". Resource Investing News. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  4. Hornby, Lucy (25 August 2009). "Mongolia repeals windfall tax, paves way for Ivanhoe". Reuters . Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  5. "Mongolia tax repeal clears way for $4 bln mine". China Mining. 28 August 2009. Retrieved 13 May 2013.
  6. 1 2 Thorndike, Joseph J. (November 10, 2005). "Historical Perspective: The Windfall Profit Tax -- Career of a Concept". Tax History Project. Tax Analysts . Retrieved September 4, 2016.
  7. CRS Report RL33305, The Crude Oil Windfall Profit Tax of the 1980s: Implications for Current Energy Policy, by Salvatore Lazzari, p. 5.
  8. Record Profits Mean Record Taxes, Investor's Business Daily, February 12, 2008
  9. What Is a 'Windfall' Profit?, The Wall Street Journal , August 4, 2008
  10. Finnish energy companies face windfall tax ambush, May 8, 2009
  11. Brown, Phillip (August 7, 2013). "European Union Wind and Solar Electricity: Overview and Considerations, CRS Report for Congress" (PDF). Retrieved January 26, 2015.
  12. Johnstone, Chris (September 24, 2014). "Czech industry ministry prepares new measures against solar power companies to curb renewables costs". Radio Praha. Retrieved January 26, 2015.