Hi
If Liz Truss gets in and then does what she says she will do, life is going to be very different.
She is a free market, small government fanatic, intent on tax cuts., including corporation tax.
@swimfeeders , I thought all tories were free market fanatics swimmy ?
So Truss wont be much different??
Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng will meet bosses to discuss rising prices and the sector’s profits.
Forecasts predict average annual energy bills could rise to over £4,200 by January - almost half the basic state pension of £9,628 this year.
Companies supplying energy are getting much more money for their oil and gas than they were last year, partly because demand has increased as the world emerges from the pandemic, but more recently because of supply constraints following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The energy profits levy - which the Treasury previously said could raise up to £5bn - came into effect on 26 May. Energy firms like BP have reported recorded quarterly profits this year that will not be impacted by the levy.
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Why can’t they come up with the simple solution that large companies can’t profiteer in times of national or global crisis? It’s common sense really (and something that should be disallowed anyway - what’s wrong with making an ‘honest’ profit? But maybe that’s a topic for another thread!)
Why can a member of the public come up with such an idea when it’s their job to? They don’t care that’s why, and as per that TikTok video, it is just a transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich. Nothing new there then, especially when it comes to that party! 
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Hi
Azz, I agree that there should be systems in place to ensure that one off profits are recycled into the economy.
The problem is how?
Other Countries have many different ways of doing it, we cannot agree on one.
There is little point in trying to tax it out of them, they will just move abroad.
We have to be creative about it.
We are short of Doctors, Nurses, Radiographers etc.
We are also short of good productive Apprenticeships for those who make or build things.
An idea I tried to push for the years when I had a chance of being listened to, but never was.
Don’t Tax the Profits, give them 100% Tax Relief on all payments into funding training for those we need, no Tuition Fees, no student Loans, proper paid Apprenticeships for Engineers et nand training for Doctors, Nurses etc.
No Lone holidays, 21 days a year, the rest spent working on the job, and all they have to do is guarantee to work 3 years after qualification for their employer.
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Business doesn’t have a soul. But you will notice it if it is gone. There is no incentive for businesses to bother providing a service if there is no gain. It’s an interesting discussion but you only have to look at how communism failed to see how the psychology works.
I remember reading many years ago that corporations behave like a psychopath. I am sure I also read that something like 1 in 5 CEOs are psychopaths or sociopaths (not sure what the difference is)
On the other hand profits are usually a percentage of turnover (or is it sales?) so in times of high inflation then profits are going to increase proportionally
Hi
No Profit, no jobs, a very simple equation.
If you are not going to make money why start a business and have all the hassle and risks?
There are many millionaires in China, a Communist Country
Even they recognise that hard work should be rewarded.
At times like this, huge profits for some are not the result of hard work or big Investment.
They are due to external factors which suck money from the low and average paid and give it to the mega rich.
This is just wrong in my view, so temporary taxes on excess profits are fine by me.
I have not shopped at Tesco for years, I do not agree with their bullying tactics which have caused suicides amongst supplying farmers.
Not to mention Tesco buying up swathes of land to supposedly build up more supermarkets, but in reality just preventing others from trying to stake a claim. As a result, the land lies empty for years, becoming more and more barren through time.
All successful businesses employ underhand tactics to survive. It’s like jungle law. The ones that are not evolving and hungry have disappeared from our high streets. Our sophisticated societies have been built on satisfying shareholder wealth. The alternative is a planned economy with reduced choice because of stifled innovation. The main problem is that our governments are not able to keep up with or remedy the worst behaviour as it’s usually informed by well-paid lawyers and is legally watertight. So you have years of legislation lobbying. It’s like a dinosaur trying to deal with road runner.
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I agree with you Swimfeeders. The profits these companies are raking in at the moment have not been earned - they have just fallen into their laps.I suspect that if the opposite were to happen and they would be losing money through circumstances then the begging bowl would soon be out and they would expect to be bailed out - because they have a commodity which we cannot do without.
@swimfeeders ,We had all of that back in the late forties/ early fifties
Swimmy, payed apprenticeshiips with day release technical college,
a structured pay scale for five years ,tea breaks, payed 3 weeks holidays,
limited sick pay, subsidised company canteen, etc! etc! Oh yes, and a
monthly sccial club meeting in the canteen !!
sounds like shang-ri- la dont it ??
But this was under Atlees socialist government who gave the employers
large tax breaks to comply !!
I was lucky, l had finished my apprenticeship before the tories got in again !!
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Actions speak louder than words. Not saying it won’t happen, but often these things are meant in good spirit but generally don’t happen because shareholders complain like mad.
Oh ye of little faith.
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Hi
No, I don’t think it wrong
I accept it as a fact of life, it is how our system works here in the UK.
The companies involved did not plan or arrange this state of affairs.
That was Putin.
What I do think is totally wrong is our unique system of energy supply and the fact that the Companies involved have not paid the appropriate Tax on it.
Rather than pay the Tax and respond in a sensible manner by restricting their own profits and pumping money into insulating the homes of those least able to do so themselves, they have used every trick in the book to keep all the excess profits to management and investors.
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And it continues:
The UK’s biggest supermarket chain said pre-tax profits hit £2.3bn, up from £882m, while sales rose by 4.4% to £68.2bn in the year to 24 February.
The CEO of Woolworths was threatened with gaol time when he appeared before a Senate inquiry into price gouging by the supermarket chains
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