'Baccy Bods Have Gone Mad - No, Really, Mad

They're being misled, of course

So, have a look at this:

A recent set of accounts from Imperial Brands, which owns Imperial Tobacco. Now, the question is, can you see a 66% net profit in there? Can you see 66% of anything that could in fact be taxed away?

I mean sure, profits are nice. But they’re well under 10% of turnover, no? And one good reason for that is that duty - tax - is getting on for 50% of turnover already. Given that it really cannot - just cannot - be true that there’s a 66% margin in this business. Not if near 50% of turnover already disappears in tax.

But:

Reeves should also legislate to introduce a recurring annual levy on the profits tobacco firms make, they say, which in the case of Imperial Tobacco is a £66.50 margin on every £100 of sales. Such a move could produce as much as £700m a year in extra revenue, it has been estimated.

They’re mad, aren’t they? Wholly and completely doolally.

It’s not even the mistake made - OK, lie told - about profits in children’s homes. Where they deliberately confuse matters between operating profit, ebitda and net profit. Or, as I’ve put it, leave out the cost of having a home into which we can put children so as to have a children’s home.

Nope, they’re worse than that. There really isn’t anywhere there that Imperial can possibly be having a 66% margin given that near 50% duty charge. Therefore they’re either mad or lying. Presumably this mental failure being caused by a lack of nicotine in the bloodstream to clarify the thought process.