UK Finance, the lobby group for banks including Lloyds, JP Morgan and Revolut, is accused of cherrypicking data in its case against a Budget bank tax rise, the Guardian reports. The group rejects the charge.
UK Finance has sent the Chancellor, John Healey, figures from its annual study of the total tax borne by a large bank. The study covers corporation tax, social security, VAT and bank-specific levies. According to reports of the study, which was produced by PwC, London has a total tax rate of 46.2%, against 42.2% in Amsterdam, 39.1% in Frankfurt, 29% in Dublin and 27.9% in New York.
The study does not include Paris. Calculations reported alongside it put the rate for the same bank in Paris at between 51.6% and 57.3%, up to 11.1 percentage points above London. On those figures, London is the most taxed only among the centres UK Finance chose. UK Finance says Paris is not a like-for-like comparison because of its relative tax burden.
Simon Youel, head of policy and campaigns at Positive Money, questioned why Paris was left out and urged Healey to tax banks more. Positive Money and the TUC both campaign for higher bank taxes. The TUC says restoring the bank surcharge from 3% to 8% could raise £2.25bn a year.
The Treasury has not confirmed any bank tax rise.