Reuters
Chancellor John Healey is planning to increase taxes on the bank sector, senior banking executives have told the BBC.
Healey has described banks as part of “the crown jewels” of the UK economy, but leaders in the sector have said it will be “on the menu” at the Budget in two weeks’ time.
The biggest four banks collectively made about £15bn profit in the first six months of this year, and trade unions have called for them to face additional taxes.
The trade body for the banking sector, UK Finance, warned “further increases in bank taxes would weaken competitiveness, discourage investment and job creation, and work against the government’s ambition to deliver growth in every postcode”.
Shares in banks including Lloyds and NatWest fell on Friday on expectations that the sector would be hit by tax hikes. The firms were among the biggest fallers on the UK stock market, with both dropping more than 2%.
Barclays fell only slightly and HSBC actually rose as both have large international businesses and would be less affected by a hike in UK taxes.
There are a number of ways the chancellor could extract more money from the sector.
One option is for Healey is to reverse a reduction in the surcharge that banks pay on corporation tax, from 8% to 3%, introduced in 2023, by Conservative chancellor Jeremy Hunt.
Critics argue this would be unfair noting the cut coincided with a rise in corporation tax from 19% to 25%.
Healey could also raise the bank levy – a small percentage charged on loans.
The BBC understands that the Treasury is leaning towards changing the surcharge if they were to go ahead as it is easier to change an existing tax rather than impose a new windfall tax.
Reversing the 2023 surcharge rate would raise around £2bn. However, the last government was persuaded that adding 8% on top of corporation tax of 25% would leave UK banks struggling to compete with European and US rivals – so it may be that it is raised, but not all the way back to the 8% level.
Speaking to the press in Bangkok, Healey praised the role banks play in the British economy.
Adding that he has “decisions to take in the Budget”, he said: “My observation on the banks is that people too often see them as big, distant financial institutions, when they are hardwired into the economic fabric of this country and our future prospects.”
In the past banks have successfully argued that higher taxes would risk making the UK uncompetitive with other jurisdictions and would reduce their ability to lend, and therefore be anti-growth.
Sir Philip Augar, an author and former banker in the City of London, told the BBC’s Today programme there was “room for a moderate increase” in taxes on the sector that could raise up to £3bn a year.
He said lenders were enjoying “booming conditions”, benefiting from higher interest rates which boost their profits.
Rising interest rates have expanded the margin between the rate at which banks lend to customers and the rate they pay savers.
Sir Philip added that when the banking sector “hits really rocky times it expects the taxpayer to bail them out – when it hits boom times, it expects some kind of special treatment”.
He said banks cannot simultaneously be “too big to fail and too big to tax”.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trades Union Congress, which represents trade unions, said Britain’s four biggest banks are making a billion pounds a week, with bonuses at post-financial crash records. “These are bumper profits – driven by high interest rates and households’ mortgage misery,” he said.
“Now it’s time to make sure banks pay their fair share,” he added.
“But if the chancellor does ask the Banks to pay a fairer share of tax in the Budget, that’s 100% the right call,” he added.
Banks were pleased to have avoided being targeted at the last Budget, given the large profits they have made in recent years.
There is another option that has been discussed with Treasury officials. Currently banks can use losses from the past to offset against profits – thereby reducing their tax bill in any given year. Lloyds in particular has been a beneficiary of this policy, as large losses from the financial crisis have been used to lower tax bills ever since.
Some analysts and bank executives have pushed the idea of a moratorium on this practice for a few years, which would yield an estimated extra £1bn per year for the Treasury. That would provide a windfall while being “a lot more bearable”, in the words of one bank executive.
It would also spare foreign banks from an additional hit, including JP Morgan, whose chief executive Jamie Dimon has warned that the UK already has one of the highest tax burdens on banks in the world. He warned that adding further sector-specific taxes could discourage investment and damage competitiveness.
However, industry leaders say any form of tax rise that hits UK banks and exempts foreign banks’ operations in the UK would be hard to square with the government’s push to back British business.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “As has always been the case, decisions on tax are a matter for the chancellor to set out at fiscal events, rather than routinely commenting on rumour, speculation or proposals.”
UK economy
John Healey
Banking
UK banking
Tax
