Lindner wants 33 percent tax for oil and gas companies

Berlin The Federal Ministry of Finance wants to tax excess profits from oil and gas companies with a tax rate of 33 percent. This emerges from a formulation aid for the annual tax law, which is available to the Handelsblatt.

All companies active in the oil, gas, coal and refinery sectors would be affected. The tax applies to profits from 2022 and 2023 that are more than 20 percent above the average profit from 2018 to 2021. First the “world” had reported.

For months, Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) had vehemently opposed calls by the Greens to introduce a general excess profit tax. When it came to the plan to skim off crisis profits from electricity producers, he attached great importance to the fact that this was a “tax”. However, some in the governing coalition are also talking about an excess profit tax.