100 posts
Taxing times for Sarkozy
France's planned introduction of a "Tobin tax" has broken a practical taboo, but will it help or hamper economic growth, asks Jason Walsh. Speaking on television on Sunday night, French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced plans to introduce...
Scrap the FTT, have a Bourse Tax instead
At 10.53 on 20th January 2012, the Telegraph reported on their live blog: 10.53 A German Government spokesman says that an EU-wide financial transaction tax is still the goal, but that there may be a possible bridge with the UK via a bourse tax. Wha...
I Never Ask for an Explanation of Past Positions
Especially when it comes to the basic practice of European humiliation politics:Germany and Italy undermine French bid for financial taxGerman and Italian leaders at a meeting in Berlin said they would only back a financial transactions tax at the le...
Why I agree with Sarkozy on the FTT...!!
"French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made it quite clear he is determined to forge ahead with a controversial Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), even if it means his country is the only one to implement it. It seems likely, then, that some form of...
Would a Financial Transactions Tax hurt Europe’s economy?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has made it quite clear he is determined to forge ahead with a controvesial Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), even if it means his country is the only one to implement it. It seems likely, then, that some form ̷...
The Tobin Tax and the Populist Pitch
Nicolas Sarkozy knows that in order to win re-election, he needs to scarf up the "populist" vote that he won in 2007 by poaching on the FN's xenophobic territory and that he risks losing in 2012 because the FN is poaching on his "defend the working m...
Boundless arrogance
Just to remind you, formally the European Community is made up of 27 countries each equal under the Treaties.Then you have reality.A European financial transaction tax will be in place by the end of year, French minister for European affairs Jean Leo...
Just what does it take to start an Irish Tea Party, then?
The speculation in the Irish Times about yet another hefty tax charge on home owners, this time for water, got me wondering. Is there a breaking point, a moment of realisation, where a substantial section of the income tax paying population declare e...
Summary
Dear forum goers, hope you will have a good meeting. I cannot make it to Brussels today. Below, please find a short summary of my thoughts: There is a necessary connection between any new constitution and the military strategy. To finish with the so...
The Financial Transactions Tax – One Big Mess
So the Financial Transactions Tax (“FTT”) seems to be stuck in a rut at the moment. Last month, Chris Leslie MP voiced Labour’s support for the FTT provided that it was an international tax. In a rare show of cross party political agreement...
Would a EuroTax allow us to turn on the printing presses at the ECB?
There is much talk about the latest solution to Europe’s debt crisis being to let the ECB turn its printing presses to full throttle, and start printing out an extra couple of trillion euro (trillion. Yes, we’re now talking about trilli...
Our video guest: Dr. Bart Van Vooren, Copenhagen University
Dr Bart Van Vooren is Assistant Professor in European Law and Integration at Copenhagen University. In this interview, taken during a recent debate in Brussels, Mr Van Vooren outlines the possibilities and problems around a European financial tran...
More Europe Manifesto proposes fiscal and social harmonisation
A group of Spanish eurobloggers has launched an appeal for More Europe, in order to overcome the crises in the eurozone and the wider European Union. You can read and sign the appeal on the More Europe blog. You can participate in the Twitter discuss...
Financial Transaction Tax sparks disagreement in Council of Ministers
At the end of the meeting of the 27 finance ministers on 8 November, two fractions became clearly visible. The Franco-German double, supported by Spain, sees itself opposed by a group of offensive anglo-saxon countries. “I would suggest that we...
George Osborne tells his colleagues some plain truths about Tobin Tax
The clip in Nick Robinson's report last night was great, but the full thing is even better. If you haven't got round to it yet, here's George Osborne's demolition of the Tobin Tax in full at Ecofin yesterday...
European Financial Transaction Tax – the story of a broken dream
The G20 summit last week made significant advances in the introduction of a global financial transaction tax (FTT). Not only France, Spain and Germany but also Argentina, Brazil, Ethiopia and South Africa have declared themselves in favor of an FTT,...
EU summit: The Financial (transaction tax) Times
European summits are fertile ground for PR stunts, if only because of the hundreds of journalists milling around waiting for decisions to be made. Oxfam today has distributed copies of “(Not the) Financial Times”, a 4-page edition of our...
12 EU countries where you can still hide money
Today the campaign group Tax Justice Network published their annual Financial Secrecy Index showing the top tax havens around the world. The aim of the Financial Secrecy Index is to show which jurisdictions that have “set up laws and systems w...
EU leads the world on financial transactions tax
S&D Euro MPs welcomed the European Commission's proposal to create a financial transaction tax in the EU for which they have been campaigning for months. Said S&D spokesman for economic and monetary affairs, Udo Bullmann and Anni Podimat...
Financial Transaction Tax and Multispeed Europe
The UK government's stated opposition to the FTT was hardly unexpected. With the City of London acting as the financial heart of the EU, and a sacred (cash) cow for the UK government in terms of tax receipts, the UK was always going to be resistant t...
Financial Transaction Tax is politically and economically unwise
Banks, just like any other corporation do not pay taxes. People pay taxes, stockholders, consumers pay taxes. An FTT will put the entire burden on the citizenry and will make the eurozone less... To view the full entry click on the title or visit ht...
A Robin Hood tax could turn the banks from villains to heroes | Bill Nighy
An EU-wide Robin Hood tax is close to becoming reality. Cameron must now tell the City to get on boardIt's a script that even Hollywood might have balked at. In the midst of the worst economic crisis since the second world war, a small band of m...
EU banker tax? UK says no
"In the last three years member states - I should say taxpayers - have granted aid and provided guarantees of €4.6 trillion to the financial sector. It is time for the financial sector to make a contribution back to society. That is why I am very p...
It’s payback time for the financial sector
The EU commission has today proposed a new tax, that will tax the exchange of shares and bonds by a rate of 0.1% and derivative contracts , at a rate of 0.01%. José Manuel Barroso introduced the proposal in his State of the Union speech in the Europ...
Articles: European Journal of Int’l Law and Goettingen Journal of Int’l Law
“Fighting Maritime Piracy under the European Convention on Human Rights”, European Journal of International Law, Volume 22, Issue 3, by Stefano Piedimonte Bodini, Head of Division at the Programme and Budget Department of the Council of Europe (a...
Britain's sordid Swiss tax deal is doomed to failure | Nicholas Shaxson
Bilateral agreements with Switzerland not only undermine EU efforts, they will raise just a fraction of what has been promisedThe UK is about to sign an agreement with Switzerland under which Swiss banks levy taxes on secret Swiss accounts held by UK...
France steps up support for financial transaction tax
If governments could find trillions of dollars to support banks and the global financial system in 2009, why can’t they raise enough money to help eradicate extreme poverty? This is the question that supporters of a financial transaction tax (FT...
Taxing A Few Millionaires: Symbolic?
According to the Wall Street Journal, the top 1% of U.S. taxpayers had 19.4% of the total income in 2007 and paid 28.1% of all federal taxes. In 1987, the top 1% had 11.2% of the total income and paid 16.2% of all federal taxes. In other words,...
Obama Tax Plan Would Ask More of Millionaires
Via Scoop.it – The Great Transition President Obama will seek a new minimum tax rate to ensure that people making more than $1 million a year pay at least the same percentage of their earnings as middle-income taxpayers, administration official...
Financial Transaction Tax: Bad economics - Cheap Politics
A Financial Transaction Tax confuses virtue with vice as it will only produce adverse effects for the economy. Politicians use it to win approaching elections. Image Source: LBI In the joint... To view the full entry click on the title or visit h...
Shooting the bankers, or themselves?
European leaders are pushing for a tax on financial transactions, but it might do more harm than good...
Watson Hails Brussels Decision to Reduce Fuel Duty on the Isles of Scilly
South West MEP Sir Graham Watson has welcomed the decision by the European Commission to allow the coalition government to go ahead with a scheme to reduce duty on the Scilly Isles by 5p a litre on petrol and diesel consumed on the islands. This is p...
Does Europe need a Tea Party?
Post published by Michael Schuman on the Time, September 12, 2011 I was just in Paris, reporting a story for TIME magazine, and watching Europe unravel around me. Concerns about a Greek default are escalating, sending the yields on one-year bonds so...
EU to push financial transactions tax at G20 summit
The European Union will push for the adoption of a financial transactions tax (FTT) at a summit of the world's 20 biggest economies, the G20, in November, European Commission President José Manuel Barroso said on Wednesday (31 August). G20 leader...
France's tax musketeers have done the decent thing | Agnès Poirier
In volunteering to pay more tax, the 'patriotic millionaires' have set a much needed example of solidarityJust what we needed, and I'm not being ironic. The day before the announcement of France's austerity budget, 16 prominent French CEOs have calle...
Is a Financial Transaction Tax a good idea?
Taxing the rich to feed the poor is a legitimate demand. But a FTT seems to confuse virtue with vice. Image Source: Thelocal In the joint letter of French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor Merkel a clear statement is made towards imposing a...
Is a Financial Transaction Tax a good idea?
Taxing the rich to feed the poor is a legitimate demand. But a FTT seems to confuse virtue with vice. Image Source: Thelocal In the joint letter of French President Sarkozy and German Chancellor... To view the full entry click on the title or visit...
EU taxes: distracting, impractical and asymmetrical
The dual pressures of the eurozone crisis and looming negotiations on the new long term EU budget have given a fresh impetus to Brussels policymakers' long-held desire for greater EU powers, direct or indirect, over EU taxation. Chancellor Merkel an...
EU taxes: a significant step towards more democratic economic governance
The Young European Federalists (JEF-Europe) welcome the new funding model of the EU budget unveiled by the European Commission as an important step towards a democratic economic governance of the Union, but urge the Parliament and the Council to cont...
Tax Freedom is upon us
Happy Tax Freedom Day to our Polish and Danish readers! Or so says a new study put out today by New Direction, a think tank funded by the centre-right European Conservatives and Reformists parliament group. Tax Freedom Day isn’t some …Continu...
To keep the Irish Corporate Tax, or not to keep?
We have been there so many times before, during the Lisbon Treaty referendum, during the IMF/EU loan to Ireland...One "important" Irish national issue that needs to be negotiated between Irish politicians and their European counterparts (especially F...
Time for EU Uncut?
Like or loathe them but UK Uncut have been highlighting tax avoidance in the UK in a way no-one has ever done before. Vodafone, Fortnum and Mason… more on their site. But this is not a UK problem alone. Different corporation tax rates apply acr...
Low taxation of company cars: a perverse incentive to pollute?
As residents of Brussels know all too well, this is a car city. Sure, there's an efficient metro system – but it has only two lines and doesn't cover large swathes of the city's more affluent areas, which are instead covered by glacially slow trams...
Blesssed are the tax inspectors
In an incohate expression of impotence the general secretary the EU's uber UNISON, the EPSU, Carola Fischbach-Pyttel has demanded that the EU bring back red blooded socialism, and if necessary impose it on national governments.She is echoed by the in...
Case C‑155/09, Commission v Greece
An interesting case on Arts 12 EC, 18 EC, 39 EC and 43 EC regarding a tax exemption granted solely to persons residing in Greece and to persons of Greek origin not residing in Greece at the date of purchase. The Commission argued that Greece had fail...
