Ahead of the informal meeting of the Ministers for Economic and Financial Affairs on 30 and 31 March, S&D Group Leader Hannes Swoboda urges EU Finance Ministers "to take swift and decisive action on the introduction of a financial transaction tax (FTT) and the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion". In view of Thursday's meeting Hannes Swoboda has sent a letter to Margarethe Vestager, Danish Minister for Economic Affairs and the Interior, with a copy to all Economic and Finance Ministers of the EU Member States.

 

 

"Recent statements from the German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble have been irritating. I do not understand why he moves away from his position on the FTT. Ahead of the meeting of Finance Ministers we need to have a coherent wording and a clear position in favour of the FTT and against any means of tax evasion".

 

 

"Support for a financial transaction tax has been gathering over the past two years. ... It is now clear that opposition to an FTT is purely political and is not based on scientific fact.

 

"The main findings of a study commissioned by our Group suggest that the impact of introducing an FTT on levels of GDP is likely to be positive, at around +0.25% as a minimum. Furthermore, it is certainly the case that many of the countries that do have FTTs have not been growth laggards, such as: South Korea, Hong Kong, India, Brazil, Taiwan, South Africa and Switzerland. On the contrary, they have been amongst the fastest growing economies in the world.

 

"Alternatives to the model proposed by the Commission and supported by the European Parliament should be discussed with particular care and keeping in mind what is the original purpose of the FTT. As a matter of fact, if the aim of implementing an FTT is to tackle speculation, to make the financial sector pay a fair share and to raise significant revenue, an alternative FTT on shares only would certainly fail to meet these goals. The majority of revenue would in fact come from derivative transactions and not from shares. Moreover, by taxing only shares, the tax would mainly be paid by households, insurance and pension funds while the bulk of speculative activity would be left untouched".

 

 

"We need to give a strong signal that the EU is making all the necessary efforts to close the European tax gap. The S&D Group proposes that the European Council agree on an ambitious but realistic headline target: halving the tax gap by 2020.

 

"This target can be reached by ensuring action on key issues such as reforming the accounting rules and corporate accounting disclosure, upgrading and extending the scope of the European Union Savings Directive, ensuring a compulsory Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base and introducing country-by-country reporting for cross-border companies. Moreover, special attention must be given to ensuring adequate EU-wide agreements with key non-EU countries currently providing platforms for financial institutions facilitating tax fraud and evasion activities from within the EU, such as Switzerland".

 

 

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