George Osborne announces multibillion pound supertax
George Osborne has today hit the ground running with confirmation that the UK government will put in place a multibillion pound supertax for the UK banking sector. In what has been put forward as "payback time" for funds lent by UK taxpayers to the UK banking industry there will be major changes although how the increased charges will ultimately be funded remains to be seen.
While the idea of penalising banks for their excessive lending and risk-taking of the past is something which many people would agree with, the introduction of another tax on the industry could backfire. There is no doubt that in time it will be customers who pay the price for these new charges which will ultimately be passed down from the banking corporations of the UK to their service charges. It is also unclear how the UK government will use these potentially enormous tax revenues with a suggestion that some funds may be put aside as insurance for the future.
Even though there is no doubt that UK banks have taken excessive risks in the past very often this has been done with the knowledge of regulators, and governments have been happy to rake in the additional taxes from companies and individuals.
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