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In Australia, windfall tax may refer to either:
- Commonwealth places windfall tax, imposed under the Commonwealth Places Windfall Tax (Collection) Act 1998 (1998 No 25) and the Commonwealth Places Windfall Tax (Imposition) Act 1998 (1998 No 26)
- Franchise fees windfall tax, imposed under the Franchise Fees Windfall Tax (Collection) Act 1997 (1997 No 132), Franchise Fees Windfall Tax (Imposition) Act 1997 (1997 No 133), and Franchise Fees Windfall Tax (Consequential Amendments) Act 1997 (1997 No 134)
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.
The Windfall Tax was a tax on what were claimed to be "the excess profits of the privatised utilities" and was introduced by the Labour government of Tony Blair in 1997. It followed from their manifesto commitment made during the 1997 general election campaign to impose a "windfall levy" on the privatised utilities. The tax came after 18 years of Conservative government, which had seen the privatization of many state-owned assets, at prices which many considered too low. It aimed to "put right the bad deal which customers and taxpayers got from the privatisation of the utilities". The tax produced an estimated one off income to the government of £5 billion, which was used to fund the New Deal, a welfare-to-work program that sought to tackle long term unemployment, as well as providing capital investment for schools and the University for Industry (Learndirect).
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 The tax was repealed in 2009 and phased out over two years.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.
A Windfall tax or Windfall profits tax is a taxation of profits by a company. Specific legislation includes:
- Windfall tax (Australia)
- Windfall tax (Mongolia)
- Windfall Tax (United Kingdom)
Usage examples of "windfall tax".
The divested Microsoft divisions have automated their legal processes and are spawning subsidiaries, IPOing them, and exchanging title in a bizarre parody of bacterial plasmid exchange, so fast that, by the time the windfall tax demands are served, the targets don't exist anymore, even though the same staff are working on the same software in the same Mumbai cubicle farms.