Should the tax surcharge on bank profits be raised from 3% to 8% in the Budget?
Banks in the UK pay a 3% surcharge on profits above a £100 million allowance, on top of 25% corporation tax, giving a combined headline rate of about 28%. The surcharge was cut from 8% to 3% from April 2023 to offset the corporation tax rise, and the 2025 Autumn Budget left it unchanged. Ahead of the 28 October 2026 Budget, Chancellor John Healey is reported to be preparing a return to 8%, which analysts estimate could raise around £2 billion a year, while banks and UK Finance warn about competitiveness.
6 Opinions
No, we should own enough of every back to claim a significant dividend for the treasury
No. It may sound popular but it’s killing one of the few industries where the UK was still globally competitive. The UK doesn’t have a tax revenue problem, it has a big state spending problem.
We should be cutting their taxes to be in line with other corporations instead.
Number of introduced as "temporary measures" taxes are still paid today. Some of them since 18th century. Time to stop this taxnado and look at the expenses, multiple times. Simply no.
It's a regrettable no. Simply because it's obvious the additional cost to banks won't be absorbed, it'll just be passed onto consumers as even worse saving rates and borrowing costs. If we lived in the Utopia where they would be prevented from doing that, then it would be a straight yes.
As a temporary measure and in parallel to cutting government spending