In a press release published today, the European Commission set out its ideas for the future taxation of the financial sector. Underlining that the financial sector needs to make a fair contribution to public finances, and that governments urgently need new sources of revenue, the Commission puts forward a two pronged approach. At global level, the Commission supports the idea of a Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), which is supposed to help fund development and climate change. At EU level, the Commission recommends a Financial Activities Tax (FAT).
According to the Commission, “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 is going to present those projects to the European Council at the end of October and to the G20 Summit in November.
