27th September 2015

FTT negotiations nearing conclusion

Commissioner Pierre Moscovici in charge of taxation and financial matters informed on 14 September, after an ECOFIN Council meeting, that the 11 countries negotiating to introduce a financial transaction tax are very close to reaching a final agreement. He stated that important, if not crucial progress has been made and that FTT could be introduced by 2017. At a next meeting in October, deal on the exact value of the tax and its exact scope could be reached. Belgium, Estonia, France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Austria, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Greece are countries that proceed via the so-called enhanced cooperation mechanism at the EU level. Other EU countries will be allowed to pitch in at any moment in the future, though some indicated that FTT is an unfortunate idea. Mainly the UK, where many financial institutions have their seat and many transactions take place, is unsettled by the prospects of such tax – not least because one of the ideas about the tax´s scope involves extraterritoriality, meaning that even transactions realized outside the 11 countries could be taxed if one of the parties to the transaction is domiciled in an FTT-participating country.

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Members of the American Chamber of Commerce in the Czech Republic