When do profits become offensive?
Times of crises are often years in which states reach out heavily.
A report by the scientific services of the Bundestag from last year is a true treasure trove in this regard: America, Great Britain and France siphoned off above-average profits in both the First and Second World Wars.
The tax rates ranged up to 60, 80, 90 or even 95 percent.
During the corona pandemic, there were considerations in this direction that quickly petered out.
After Russia's attack on Ukraine, yesterday's instrument is up to date again, as not only a glance across the border shows.
In the traffic light there is at least one partner, the Greens, who is flirting with an “excess profit tax”.
Irrespective of this, efforts are being made to use highly profitable Internet companies more to finance communities.
You can shift profits across borders and post them where the tax burden is minimal.
Almost 140 countries have agreed on a new division of taxation rights for them, not limited to Internet giants, but for all winners of globalization.
But that is a topic in itself.
Biontech good, energy companies bad?
High profits in times of crisis have an ambivalent character: They point to an emergency, they point to corporations that do good business with them - that is, they obviously offer what is needed.
The liberal Finance Minister Christian Lindner mentioned Biontech in this context.
These are the "good guys" who provided vaccine in the pandemic.
Whoever wants to support the work of the researchers must not confiscate them.
Economics Minister Robert Habeck from the Greens referred to energy companies that benefit from the high oil price.
These are the "bad guys".
Tax law is rightly neutral, it basically does not differentiate between lines of business.
And jumps in profits are, in and of themselves, a poor approach to taxation.
This is one of the most difficult delimitation questions.
Anyone who ignores this ends up in abysses.