IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/acbsfi/v24y2014i2-3p83-101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Innovation and pragmatism in tax design: Excess Profits Duty in the UK during the First World War

Author

Listed:
  • Mark Billings
  • Lynne Oats

Abstract

In this article, we examine the design and administration of Excess Profits Duty (EPD), introduced in the UK in 1915. This represented a significant innovation as the country's first comprehensive attempt to tax 'excessive' business profits. EPD was a complex tax which had two objectives: to generate additional revenues to help fund dramatically increased wartime government expenditure and to curb 'profiteering'. Although criticised on numerous grounds, we argue that the tax was surprisingly successful. For all its defects, it generated very substantial revenues, and its design and administration proved flexible and robust in coping with the uncertainties of war.

Suggested Citation

  • Mark Billings & Lynne Oats, 2014. "Innovation and pragmatism in tax design: Excess Profits Duty in the UK during the First World War," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2-3), pages 83-101, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:24:y:2014:i:2-3:p:83-101
    DOI: 10.1080/21552851.2014.963951
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/21552851.2014.963951
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/21552851.2014.963951?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rubin, Gerry, 1987. "War, Law, and Labour: The Munitions Acts, State Regulation, and the Unions 1915-1921," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198255383.
    2. Tomlinson, Jim, 1994. "Government and the Enterprise since 1900," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198287490.
    3. Edgar Jones, 1987. "A History of GKN," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-349-06629-2, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Walker, Stephen P., 2017. "Accountants and the pursuit of the national interest: A study of role conflict during the First World War," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 8-25.
    2. Céline Azémar & Rodolphe Desbordes & Paolo Melindi‐Ghidi & Jean‐Philippe Nicolaï, 2022. "Winners and losers of the COVID‐19 pandemic: An excess profits tax proposal," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(5), pages 1016-1038, October.
    3. Giuseppe Modarelli, 2021. "Accounting and the budget negotiation process: The case of the Holy Shroud Exposition (1931) during a period of austerity," CONTABILIT? E CULTURA AZIENDALE, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(2), pages 7-53.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anthony J. Arnold, 2014. "'A paradise for profiteers'? The importance and treatment of profits during the First World War," Accounting History Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(2-3), pages 61-81, November.
    2. Robert Wapshott & Oliver Mallett, 2018. "Small and medium-sized enterprise policy: Designed to fail?," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 36(4), pages 750-772, June.
    3. Glen O'Hara, 2009. "'What the electorate can be expected to swallow': Nationalisation, transnationalism and the shifting boundaries of the state in post-war Britain," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 51(4), pages 501-528.
    4. John Pencavel, 2013. "The Productivity Of Working Hours," Discussion Papers 13-006, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    5. Steven E. Lobell, 2006. "The International Realm, Framing Effects, and Security Strategies: Britain in Peace and War," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(1), pages 27-48, April.
    6. Geraghty, Thomas M., 2007. "The factory system in the British industrial revolution: A complementarity thesis," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 51(6), pages 1329-1350, August.
    7. Richard Hayman, 2008. "Charcoal ironmaking in nineteenth‐century Shropshire," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 61(1), pages 80-98, February.
    8. Steven E. Lobell, 2004. "Politics and National Security: The Battles for Britain," Conflict Management and Peace Science, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 21(4), pages 269-286, September.
    9. Chris Carr & Andrew Lorenz, 2014. "Robust strategies: lessons from GKN 1759-2013," Business History, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(7), pages 1169-1195, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:acbsfi:v:24:y:2014:i:2-3:p:83-101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RABF21 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.