The EU Financial Transactions Tax

Following the recent ECOFIN meeting and EU summit, it now appears likely that the huge political force behind the proposals will result in a FTT being implemented in a number of European countries through the EU's enhanced cooperation procedure. The use of this procedure to introduce new taxes is unprecedented. In this bulletin we set out the very latest position across the EU and provide our thoughts on what shape any FTT may take.

ECOFIN

At the ECOFIN meeting on June 22, EU Finance Ministers held a debate on the European Commission's proposed FTT Directive and a Danish EU presidency paper. This paper set out alternative ways forward on the FTT project – either the introduction of a FTT on a 'two step' basis (i.e., introduction of a narrow-form FTT, followed in due course by a wider scope FTT), or examining other possible ways of regulating or taxing the financial sector.