To begin with, the Lithuanian Tax Commissioner Algirdas Šemeta stated that it would be important for the Member States to improve the quality of tax revenues and to change the tax systems accordingly in times of crisis and budget consolidations. Concerning this issue, he appealed for a coordinated approach of the Member States.

The citizen should be at the centre of the Internal Market. That is why Šemeta wants to address the problem of double taxation between individual states. There would be an ongoing civil society hearing since April. Another central issue this year will be the inheritance tax, where an inheritance in another Member State would also pose the danger of double taxation. Here too a consultation is taking place; the Commission intends to publish a relevant Commission Communication before the end of the year.

Šemeta intends to continue the issue of standardization of the corporate tax assessment basis, which had already been taken up by his predecessor. The Commission is currently carrying out an impact assessment; a new legislative proposal is supposed to follow before the end of this year.

The Commissioner, however, had little to say on the Financial Transaction Tax. He only commented on the bank levy; the Commission has already published a relevant proposal. This had been welcomed by the Council. With regard to further steps, the meeting of the G20 had shown how great the challenge was.

During the discussion, several MEPs of the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left such as Udo Bullmann, Philippe Lamberts, Jürgen Klute or Pervenche Berès promptly criticised the Lithuanian Commissioner because of his hesitant approach regarding the Financial Transaction Tax: the European Parliament had asked the Commission already some months ago, to carry out an analysis on the introduction of a Financial Transaction Tax. According to the MEPs, such a tax would be a central element for containing resp. combating the crisis and a welcome source of income to rehabilitate national budgets.

Šemeta voiced the opinion that the result of the G20 meeting had been clear. A financial Transaction Tax had to be introduced worldwide. Although one might consider the EU-wide introduction of the tax, however, this has to be done against the background of competitiveness.

However, the criticism of the MEPs of the Commission did not end here: the banks must be made to pay; a Financial Transaction Tax would be an option. A bank levy, however, would be passed to the consumers. The increase of Value Added Tax, which either has been implemented or is concretely considered by some Member States, would be a burden in particular for low earners.

The Chamber of Labour as well as many Trade Unions (for example from Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, Austria) support the idea of introducing a Financial Transaction Tax and are therefore directly involved in the campaign “Regulate Global Finance Now”, which demands a tax on financial transactions of 0.5 Promille.

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