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Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

theguardian.com

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Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#31

Post by FirmwareBurner »

gruez wrote: post #23
cykotic wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not bother me. But I think there should be a min/max for how much wealth a person has. No one suffers from taxing windfall profits. Windfall , by definition, being unexpectedly high profits.

> No one suffers from taxing windfall profits. Windfall , by definition, being unexpectedly high profits. 1. This is objectively false. Shareholders of the bank suffer, because they get less profits. This may not be a crowd that solicits a lot of sympathy, but they still exist. 2. How do you feel about VCs and startups? Their entire business model is investing in 100 companies, knowing that 99 will fail but 1 will ma…

>Shareholders of the bank suffer

Won't someone think of the poor bank shareholders? /s

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#32

Post by tensor »

This is a bit strange as presumably interest rates were raised in the first place to prevent inflation. Turning around and scolding the banks for doing what the government wanted in the first place seems counter productive.

Wouldn't redistributing these profits back to mortgage holders just undermine the raising of interest rates in the first place?

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#33

Post by gameman144 »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #31
gruez wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one suffers from taxing windfall profits. Windfall , by definition, being unexpectedly high profits. 1. This is objectively false. Shareholders of the bank suffer, because they get less profits. This may not be a crowd that solicits a lot of sympathy, but they still exist. 2. How do you feel about VCs and startups? Their entire business model is investing in 100 companies, knowing that 99 will fail but 1 will ma…

>Shareholders of the bank suffer Won't someone think of the poor bank shareholders? /s

I mean, your parents and their 401k that holds all the money they're planning to retire on feels decently human and relatable to me.

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#34

Post by woodruffw »

ricardobayes wrote: post #9

Can we have energy companies next? Pocketing record profits during this situation is just disgusting.

Ideally we'd just nationalize them: state- or municipality-owned power companies in the US routinely provide cheaper and better service than their private counterparts[1].

[1]: https://wgme.com/news/local/are-private-or-public-electric-u...

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#35

Post by gruez »

FirmwareBurner wrote: post #31
gruez wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No one suffers from taxing windfall profits. Windfall , by definition, being unexpectedly high profits. 1. This is objectively false. Shareholders of the bank suffer, because they get less profits. This may not be a crowd that solicits a lot of sympathy, but they still exist. 2. How do you feel about VCs and startups? Their entire business model is investing in 100 companies, knowing that 99 will fail but 1 will ma…

>Shareholders of the bank suffer Won't someone think of the poor bank shareholders? /s

Did you stop reading there before deciding to write your snarky comment? I address that concern in the sentence immediately after that.

>This may not be a crowd that solicits a lot of sympathy, but they still exist.

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#36

Post by bastardoperator »

madballster wrote: post #21

This is an old European disease. Corporate profits are often seen as an adverse result; of consumers being taken advantage of unfairly. Taxing excess profits beyond what are already high tax rates is popular amongst voters (e.g. see poll results in the UK, 2022). However, this lowers the appeal for new entrants to enter these markets to compete for these excess profits through better and more efficient products and s…

TIL not being a capitalist is a disease.

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#37

Post by concinds »

madballster wrote: post #21

This is an old European disease. Corporate profits are often seen as an adverse result; of consumers being taken advantage of unfairly. Taxing excess profits beyond what are already high tax rates is popular amongst voters (e.g. see poll results in the UK, 2022). However, this lowers the appeal for new entrants to enter these markets to compete for these excess profits through better and more efficient products and s…

Your assumption, that if without these extra taxes, more banks would be created and the industry would become less concentrated, seems untrue. The banking industry seems to be becoming hugely concentrated in every Western country, regardless of windfall taxes.

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#38

Post by megaman821 »

femiagbabiaka wrote: post #25
megaman821 wrote: post #18

Windfall taxes and bailouts aren't the policies that create a healthy banking sector. Instead they should worry about crafting better regulations and having competition for where people's savings go.

What would you say is an exemplar of a healthy banking sector?

A healthy sector would have banks with balance sheets large and diverse enough to smooth over small economic disruptions like a bad bank investments or increased customer withdraws, and banks would offer customer savings rates much closer to overnight lending rates.

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#39

Post by fock »

ilrwbwrkhv wrote: post #27
madballster wrote: post #21

This is an old European disease. Corporate profits are often seen as an adverse result; of consumers being taken advantage of unfairly. Taxing excess profits beyond what are already high tax rates is popular amongst voters (e.g. see poll results in the UK, 2022). However, this lowers the appeal for new entrants to enter these markets to compete for these excess profits through better and more efficient products and s…

And that is why so many british businesses incorporate in the virgin islands or cayman.

which could easily be visited by a landing ship full of guardia di finanza. If the corrupt british regime would not offer protection for services rendered...

Re: Italy approves 40% windfall tax on banks for 2023 as profits soar

#40

Post by webdood90 »

madballster wrote: post #21

This is an old European disease. Corporate profits are often seen as an adverse result; of consumers being taken advantage of unfairly. Taxing excess profits beyond what are already high tax rates is popular amongst voters (e.g. see poll results in the UK, 2022). However, this lowers the appeal for new entrants to enter these markets to compete for these excess profits through better and more efficient products and s…

I didn't think it was possible but banking shills apparently exist

> If one wants free enterprise and reap its benefits

who wants this from banking???

> one has to allow high profits for companies and see if competition takes care of the "problem"

ah, yes - we've seen this work so many times before!

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