PM Costa considering windfall tax but corporate tax ‘already high’

  • Ana Marcela
  • 12 August 2022

The executive is "analysing the situation", to see if this tax "is justified", namely through a study to understand "what is the benefit that other countries that have already adopted.

Portugal’s prime minister said on Friday that the government was studying a windfall tax, but warned that the Portuguese situation “is not comparable to that of other countries” due to the high tax burden on companies.

Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a visit to the Luís Madureira crèche in Amadora (Lisbon), António Costa was asked about statements by the Socialist leader, Carlos César, who called for the creation of a tax on companies’ extraordinary profits.

In his reply, the prime m inister stressed that the government did not disregard “the situation that there are companies whose activity has been abnormally benefiting from the fact that prices have increased”.

However, Costa noted that “for some of them, it must be taken into account” that there are “surcharges and overcharges”.

“So our situation is not totally comparable with the existence [of the tax] in other countries. And that should be taken into account because companies that already pay one more surcharge and one surcharge on top of another surcharge, perhaps it is no longer reasonable to demand a third surcharge. And, therefore, this should be looked at carefully”, he stressed.

The prime minister stressed that the executive is “analysing the situation”, to see if this tax “is justified”, namely through a study to understand “what is the benefit that other countries that have already adopted, or have already announced adopting measures of this type, are having”.

“Because adopting a measure to say that we adopted a surcharge to collect a surplus, and then if it translates into no or almost nothing, (…) it makes no sense. So it is necessary to see how they are happening”, he stressed.