At his press conference on Tuesday 13 November, François Hollande declared that, “Returning to a balanced budget essentially means looking to spending cuts rather than tax increases. Are we better off with 57 per cent of GDP of public spending, whereas it was 52 per cent five years ago?” He is right. This is common sense coming from a socialist president who set out with a policy of tax hikes, practically without touching public expenditure that is the highest among OECD countries. France spends € 150 bn more than Germany per year. Does that mean that the Germans are less well off? The average public spending in Europe is some 48 per cent of GDP.
Companies & Regulation
Jean-Philippe Delsol
Tax lawyer, deputy director of IREF
The government’s goal of reducing the budgetary deficit to 3 per cent of GDP is commendable, even though such a deficit will inevitably increase the French public debt as growth will be low or even close to zero. However, the tools applied are both unjust and inefficient.
Despite being bombed by information, it seems we have forgotten the roots of the debt crisis. Instead we play a martingale game, where the only precaution after losing a round is to double the bet for the next one. The solution is not called EFSM, EFSF, ESM, SMP, OMT or banking union. These are just different names for a single problem: diluted responsibility. Unless we find a way to make local politicians pay locally for local promises, the euro project will be always in trouble.
An old American joke has it that hell is where the Swedes are in charge of entertainment. But the last laugh in fiscal policy matters in Europe will probably go to Swedish legislators as they vote for implementing a reduction of corporate income taxes (CIT).
The Taxpayers’ Alliance has published a summary of its final report, proposing a Single Income Tax to tax streams of income once. As stated by Allister Heath, Chairman of the TPA Tax Commission, “the old order is broken and needs radical reform. But we are also realists: our proposals, while far-reaching, are practical”.
Portugal is traditionally a leftist country. Since the Carnation Revolution in 1974, in which the Left threw out the fascist government of Marcelo Caetano, it is fashionable in Portugal to be leftist and being labeled socialist. If a proof was needed, in the 2011 elections, all 6 parties in parliament claimed to be leftist parties, and all the three parties who signed the Troika memorandum (yes, the ones who signed it were: PS, PSD and CDS/PP) have Social or Socialist in its very name.
This is the decrease in the rate of economic growth per capita that results from an increase in the tax revenue to GDP ratio by 10 percentage points. This is…
Everything seems to go wrong in Spain and Madrid’s policy to achieve broader deficit reduction targets looks inappropriate. The Spanish government’s introduction of new legislation to restrict interest deductions for taxation purposes could further reduce the flow of international capital into domestic commercial property, exactly at a time when the depressed local market is an important factor weighing on Spain’s recession-hit economy, the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) said.
This is the expected revenue from the financial transaction tax promoted by the EU. The proposal is expected to come into effect from 1st January 2014 and applies to the transactions carried out by financial institutions (banks, investment firms, insurance undertakings, collective investment undertakings, etc.) acting as party to a transaction, either for their own account or for the account of other persons. Most financial instruments (securities, bonds, etc.) and derivatives thereof (such as options or swaps) will be covered by the tax.
News
The financial transaction tax will reduce Member States’ GNI contributions to the EU budget by 50%
by
IREF
If adopted as a new own resource of the EU budget the financial transaction tax (FTT) will significantly reduce the contributions of member states to the EU budget, according to estimates presented yesterday by the European Commission. Member States’ contributions would be slashed by €54bn in 2020.The Commission proposes that two thirds of the revenues of the FTT go to the EU budget, reducing by the same amounts Member States’ contributions based on their GNI, with the remaining one third being retained by Member States.