Record profits trigger call for more tax on BP

Oil giant BP nearly trebled profits on back of Gulf war, but opprobrium ignores reality of international tax framework on global profits, argues Mark Tan, international tax partner at law firm Spencer West LLP

The problem with windfall taxes is when the government confuses a genuine UK windfall with a global profit pool it does not control.

The important point is the tax base. BP may be headquartered and listed in the UK, but it is a global energy group. Its latest profits appear to have been driven heavily by oil trading and global price volatility, not simply by extracting oil and gas from the UK North Sea.

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