Proposal for a Council Directive on a common system of financial transaction tax and amending Directive 2008/7/EC

The recent global economic and financial crisis had a serious impact on our economies and the public finances. The financial sector has played a major role in causing the economic crisis whilst governments and European citizens at large have borne the cost. There is a strong consensus within Europe and internationally that the financial sector should contribute more fairly given the costs of dealing with the crisis and the current under-taxation of the sector.

Several EU Member States have already taken divergent action in the area of financial sector taxation. The purpose of this proposal is to provide a common European approach to this issue that is consistent with the internal market. The present proposal aims at complementing the EU regulatory framework for safer financial services by addressing particularly risky behaviour in some segments of financial markets so as to avoid the repetition of past practices.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)594: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:594:FIN

EUR-Lex: SEC(2011)1102: Impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SEC:2011:1102:FIN

EUR-Lex: SEC(2011)1103: Summary of the impact assessment http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SEC:2011:1103:FIN

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