If it moves, tax it!
The proposal for a Directive implementing enhanced co-operation in the area of financial transaction tax (aka the EU FTT), with its eye-wateringly broad scope, will have to be churned through the legislation mills PDQ if it’s to meet its overly ambitious timeline.
The would-be tax applies to all transactions where a counterparty is established in one of the 11 participating countries, and to all transactions where the financial instrument is issued in one of those countries, regardless of where the transaction actually takes place.
Assuming that the ‘co-operating’ countries ever manage to agree unanimously on this, they will have their work cut out to adopt the required national laws by 30th September 2013, much less meet the 1st January 2014 implementation date! And remember, we’ll end up with 11 different taxes to implement.
Whichever way you look at it, it’s hard to see any real winners here.
