Press Release: European Commission outlines vision for taxing the financial sector

The European Commission has set out its ideas for the future taxation of the financial sector. Working on the basis that the financial sector needs to make a fair contribution to public finances, and that governments urgently need new sources of revenue in the current economic climate, the Commission puts forward a two pronged approach.

At global level, the Commission supports the idea of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), which could help fund international challenges such as development or climate change. At EU level, the Commission recommends that a Financial Activities Tax (FAT) would be the preferable option. If carefully designed and implemented, an EU FAT could generate significant revenues and help to ensure greater stability of financial markets, without posing undue risk to EU competitiveness. The Commission will present these ideas to the European Council at the end of October and to the G20 Summit in November.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Memo/10/477: Financial Sector Taxation: Q&As http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/10/477&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

European Commission: Speech/10/530: Algirdas Semeta, EU Commissioner for Taxation and Customs Union, Audit and Anti-Fraud, "Taxing the Financial Sector", Press Conference, Brussels, 7 October 2010 http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=SPEECH/10/530&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

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