Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) paid more than $1 billion during the second quarter paying employee bonus taxes levied by the U.K.’s government.
At the end of 2009, the U.K. government announced a bank bonus tax as part of an effort to curb excessive risk-taking by financial institutions, which served, at least in part, as a cause for the global financial crisis. Banks that operate in the U.K. have to pay a tax on discretionary individual bonuses, which are above 25,000 GBP.
Citigroup, Inc (NYSE: C) and JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) said that they paid $404 million and $550 million in U.K. bonus taxes respectively. Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) did not provide an exact figure that it paid during U.K. bonus tax, but it’s estimated to be hundreds of millions of dollars.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon said in his company’s earnings announcement that his company paid $550 million in U.K. bonus taxes.
Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) said that it had non-interest expenses (which included its payments to the U.K. bonus tax) of $870 million. CEO Brian Moynihan did not specify how much of that figure represented the U.K. bonus tax
“Non-interest expense rose slightly from the year-ago quarter on higher personnel costs in part due to the UK payroll tax on certain year-end incentive payments enacted this quarter and increased professional fees,” Bank of America Corp (NYSE: BAC) noted.
