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BackThis year, the Brussels Tax Forum, which is an annual event organised by the European Commission, mainly focused on taxing the financial sector. The preference of the European Commission for a Financial Activities Tax, a mini variant of the Financial Transaction Tax, was evident for all to see. Hence, only two supporters of a Financial Transaction Tax, namely Stephan Schulmeister (Austrian Institute of Economic Research WIFO) and a representative of OXFAM had been invited to the one and a half day Conference. All other speakers came out in favour of a Financial Activities Tax.
This is even more important against the background that the Brussels Tax Forum is held during a period during which an ongoing public Consultation of the Commission on taxing the financial sector is taking place and that all contributions presented to the Forum by the Commission are flowing into the consultation process.
The Federal Chamber of Labour (AK), the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB and the coalition Europeans for Financial Reform had organised a press conference on the Financial Transaction Tax in the run up to the Tax Forum. Apart from Stephan Schulmeister (WIFO), the Head of the AK Tax Policy Department Otto Farny, Maria Arena, Senator in the Belgian Parliament and the MEP Pervenche Berès also participated. It was made clear during the press conference that it is a requirement of the democratic as well as social and economic principles, which the EU commits to that the Commission must at last start to consider the multiple requests on behalf of the Parliament.
The speakers of the first afternoon of the Forum at least agreed that stronger taxation of the financial sector was necessary - the financial crisis had the effect that nowadays nobody can afford to be openly against this. The second day was divided into two units. The morning was devoted to the Financial Transaction Tax. The content-related input for the discussion was provided by Stephan Schulmeister. He emphasised the advantages of the Financial Transaction Tax, which among others could curtail highly speculative high-frequency trading and explained in detail why it was a myth that financial capital was volatile. And yet, in the subsequent discussion, the representative of the International Monetary Fund IMF, Victoria Perry, repeated her rejection against this form of taxation. Jeffrey Owens, a long-serving expert of the OECD, mainly criticised the issues and the approach of the Commission in respect of the Consultation.
However, thanks to the prudent invitation policy of the European Commission, one could already in the morning see a tendency emerging in favour of the Financial Activities Tax, before the experts, who had been invited to speak in the afternoon, seized to stop talking of this form of taxation altogether and the Financial Transaction Tax completely vanished from view. The Financial Activities Tax was even represented by delegates of a real existing variant - from Denmark; however, this was very one-sided. It is therefore little surprising that in particular Denmark, Sweden and of course Great Britain are vehemently opposed to the introduction of the Financial Transaction Tax. However, one expects altogether something different from a conference, where all options are supposed to be put on the table - in an objective manner. The approach by the European Commission does not exactly fill one with confidence that anything good will come out of the forthcoming consultation.
AK and ÖGB together with their allies will continue to strongly advocate that the Commission and in particular the Lithuanian Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta respect the decision of the European Parliament and the will of Europe’s citizens that speculators will make a fair contribution to the costs of the crisis.
The Federal Chamber of Labour (AK), the Austrian Trade Union Federation ÖGB and the coalition Europeans for Financial Reform had organised a press conference on the Financial Transaction Tax in the run up to the Tax Forum. Apart from Stephan Schulmeister (WIFO), the Head of the AK Tax Policy Department Otto Farny, Maria Arena, Senator in the Belgian Parliament and the MEP Pervenche Berès also participated. It was made clear during the press conference that it is a requirement of the democratic as well as social and economic principles, which the EU commits to that the Commission must at last start to consider the multiple requests on behalf of the Parliament.
The speakers of the first afternoon of the Forum at least agreed that stronger taxation of the financial sector was necessary - the financial crisis had the effect that nowadays nobody can afford to be openly against this. The second day was divided into two units. The morning was devoted to the Financial Transaction Tax. The content-related input for the discussion was provided by Stephan Schulmeister. He emphasised the advantages of the Financial Transaction Tax, which among others could curtail highly speculative high-frequency trading and explained in detail why it was a myth that financial capital was volatile. And yet, in the subsequent discussion, the representative of the International Monetary Fund IMF, Victoria Perry, repeated her rejection against this form of taxation. Jeffrey Owens, a long-serving expert of the OECD, mainly criticised the issues and the approach of the Commission in respect of the Consultation.
However, thanks to the prudent invitation policy of the European Commission, one could already in the morning see a tendency emerging in favour of the Financial Activities Tax, before the experts, who had been invited to speak in the afternoon, seized to stop talking of this form of taxation altogether and the Financial Transaction Tax completely vanished from view. The Financial Activities Tax was even represented by delegates of a real existing variant - from Denmark; however, this was very one-sided. It is therefore little surprising that in particular Denmark, Sweden and of course Great Britain are vehemently opposed to the introduction of the Financial Transaction Tax. However, one expects altogether something different from a conference, where all options are supposed to be put on the table - in an objective manner. The approach by the European Commission does not exactly fill one with confidence that anything good will come out of the forthcoming consultation.
AK and ÖGB together with their allies will continue to strongly advocate that the Commission and in particular the Lithuanian Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta respect the decision of the European Parliament and the will of Europe’s citizens that speculators will make a fair contribution to the costs of the crisis.