Which are the 11 states supporting the new financial transaction tax?

It was originally called the Tobin tax after the economist who first proposed the idea some 40 years ago and I first blogged about it more than three years ago here; subsequently it became known as the Robin Hood tax in a effort to popularise its appeal; it is a financial transaction tax (FTT) and it is about to be introduced by the European Commissioner Algirdas Semeta as he explains here.

This small but lucrative tax will be just 0.1% on bonds and shares and 0.01% on derivatives and it will raise around €30-35bn (£26-30bn or $40-47bn)  per year.

Eleven European Union member states have agreed to implement the tax. They are the Eurozone countries Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Greece and Estonia.

Although the tax is not being adopted by the UK (which already charges 0.5% stamp duty on trading in shares), it will nonetheless have to be paid by investors trading on the London Stock Exchange who are based in one of the 11 countries.


 




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