Rishi Sunak officially took over as UK prime minister today and vowed to put economic stability and confidence at the heart of his agenda alongside some compassion for people struggling in the current cost of living crisis.
Brokers suggest the reality is a little starker and that he needs to raise money from as many places as possible to fill an estimated £40bn shortfall between tax receipts and outgoings.
And that is likely to put the possibility of windfall taxes back to centre stage again.
When he was chancellor it was the scale of a windfall tax on the energy companies that reportedly prompted a falling out with Boris Johnson, with Sunak said to be much warier than his former boss.
In the end, a temporary levy of 25% on oil and gas profits was imposed until 2025 offset with a huge increase in tax relief for developing new North Sea fields.
Now back in office again, he is facing a similar debate albeit this time he is the PM and it is new chancellor Jeremy Hunt reportedly itching to slap more taxes not only on energy groups but banks as well.
How the two get on is not clear, but Hunt is expected to survive Sunak’s first Cabinet reshuffle, especially with a Budget statement still expected for 31 October and the siren call for stability.
But leaks already suggest the chancellor is looking at new levies on the banks that will cut across some of Sunak’s actions when he occupied No.11 Downing St.
The FT last week, in particular, reported that a Sunak proposal to cut a current surcharge of 8% to 3% in April 2023 would be dropped by Hunt. Added to the scrapping of the planned reduction on corporation tax it would see banks paying the exchequer 33% of their UK earnings.
True, this was presumably subject to consultation, but other things mooted have been a change to the rate of interest for money held with the Bank of England, which effectively would be a tax raid although not so visible.
For the energy companies, extending the current 25% levy by another couple of years, to 2027, would add £10bn to the £28bn already expected.
If something similar can be raised from the banks that might be hard to resist and moves in the shares today - Lloyds down 1% at 42.1p, Barclays down 1.12% at 147.2p and NatWest down 0.7% at 238.9p - suggest some are fearing the worst.