Wednesday, July 14, 2010

BP Oil Spill to Cost Britain Billions in Lost Taxes

The Treasury could be one of the biggest losers from the BP oil spill, it emerged today. The company has been one of Britain's biggest taxpayers, forking out an extraordinary £5.8billion to the Exchequer last year. But experts say its global tax bill could be slashed by £7billion over the next four years, including a big chunk which would have been paid in this country.

It is a major blow for public finances as the Government struggles to cut the nation's deficit. The drop in BP's tax bill is partly because its profits are expected to slump, resulting in a drop in its corporation tax bill.

Due to the Gulf of Mexico disaster, she predicts this will drop to £17.7billion, a fall of £7billion. Yesterday a BP spokesman admitted: 'The billions of dollars we are spending on responding to the Gulf of Mexico spill will clearly have a major negative impact on BP's profits, and so of course they will affect the taxes we pay.'

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