- Six countries, Spain among them, ask for a European framework to tax oil companies’ extraordinary profits.
- They argue that refined-product margins are rising faster than crude; the precedent is the temporary levy of 2022.
- For now it is a political request: the EU has not announced any new levy.
The finance ministers of Germany, Italy, Austria, Poland and Portugal, together with Spain’s economy minister, have sent a letter, dated 21 August 2026, to Ireland’s finance minister, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council. They ask for a levy on oil companies’ windfall profits to be put on the agenda of the finance ministers’ meeting in Dublin, planned for 18 and 19 September, and for a European framework to be created. The letter became known between 22 and 24 August.
The central argument is that oil companies enjoy overall profitability and margins on refined products that exceed the rise in crude. According to the figures the ministers cite, oil has risen about 25 % since the US-Israeli war on Iran began, European diesel more than 70 % and petrol about 20 %. The letter speaks of one of the biggest supply shocks in decades.
The 2022 precedent
The request builds on the temporary solidarity contribution that member states approved in 2022 after the invasion of Ukraine. It applied to oil, gas and coal extraction companies and to refineries, on taxable profits exceeding by more than 20 % the average of previous years, at a minimum rate of 33 %. Its proceeds were meant to support households and companies hit by energy prices.
The six countries do not want a simple repeat. They want to study a mechanism that could also reach the profits earned abroad by multinational oil companies, and they ask the Commission to finish its investigation into refinery margins as soon as possible. It should be stressed that this is a political initiative: neither the Commission nor the Council has announced a new levy.
Divided positions
Even among the signatories there is no internal unanimity. In Germany, Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) argues that energy companies must not take advantage of consumers and backs the levy, while Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU opposes it, so the German government is divided. Portugal already approved in July a 33 % tax on the windfall profits of oil and refining companies for 2026.
The debate is a reminder that taxes on windfall profits raise technical questions: how to define “extraordinary” profit, which companies are covered, whether profit or turnover is taxed, how long the measure lasts and how double taxation is avoided. Each decision changes the real effect and the legal risk, which is why the backers ask for a common framework rather than scattered national measures.
What may affect a company
If the levy went ahead, energy companies would be the first targets, but the effect could extend to fuel prices, to supply contracts with cost pass-through clauses and to investment decisions in refining and distribution. It is too early to know what form it would take, so the prudent course is to follow the debate without taking anything for granted.
Meanwhile, the war and tensions in the Strait of Hormuz continue to shape energy prices. Companies with heavy fuel consumption or indexed contracts would do well to review how costs are passed on in their agreements, and to document their energy spending well. Before any tax change, consult your adviser on how it may affect you.
Taxing windfall profits is easy to say and hard to design.
This article is general information. It is not legal, tax or investment advice, and it does not take anyone’s particular circumstances into account.
