A one off tax imposed by the UK government in 1997 on the profits of privatized utilities companies. It was applied to fund the government’s Welfare to Work program. The profits were assessed as the difference between a company’s privatized sale price and its average value over the subsequent four years. The tax was levied on a number of companies including BAA, BG, British Telecom, British Energy, Centrica, National Power, PowerGen, the regional electricity companies and the water and sewage companies