1/4% Tax on all stock trades pushed in NY Times today

BEIJING, March 18 (Reuters) - China should consider a tax on foreign exchange transactions to curb hot money flows, an adviser to the bank regulator said in remarks published on Thursday.
Andrew Sheng, chief adviser to the China Banking Regulatory Commission, said the purpose of the tax was not to increase transaction costs but to identify who was speculating in the currency market, the China Business News reported.

http://www.iii.co.uk/news/?type=afxnews&articleid=7798164&subject=companies&action=article
 
Defazio may be getting on Obama's bad side even more. Keep at it Pete.

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“My state is getting screwed,” said Representative Peter DeFazio, an Oregon Democrat. “They have to fix it. I’m a ‘no’ vote unless they fix it.”

Lawmakers representing health-care providers in 17 states are affected by the change, he said. As House leaders corral votes in favor of the legislation, DeFazio said “there are a number of people who may be miscounted at this time.”
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a9.LTbfc_qjY
 
Quote from TraDaToR: [if you] can't make the difference between a "transaction tax" and a tax on liabilities [..] at a presidential level, it's unforgiveable.
More...
Robert Peston (the BBC's business editor) explains in his blog why the word "tax" is being confusingly used to describe the Obama-style levy. The distinction is that a tax is a general purpose, budgeting device, while an insurance premium (like credit) would have a pre-defined specific purpose, i.e. be "untouchable" by the government until the next wave of bailouts:

"Treasury sources insist that Mr Darling favours such a tax rather an untouchable insurance premium not because the money would be useful in reducing debt (although it would be very useful) but because he feels that if banks felt they were explicitly insured against the consequences of their actions they could end up taking even greater risks."

So there are essentially three entities: the dreaded Tobin tax, an Obama-style earmarked insurance premium, and an Obama-style general purpose tax. And here's his analysis of the current situtation:
" with the US and Sweden having already announced such a levy, international agreement on [Obama-style] tax [on banks] looks much more likely than it did.
[..]
[Chancellor] Darling will make clear that he will lobby for a worldwide tax on banks [not a transaction Tax], rather than some kind of insurance premium.

He hopes that the world's biggest economies will agree to such a tax at meetings in late April under the auspices of the International Monetary Fund.

The tax would be designed so that banks that take the biggest risks would pay more [..] The levy could therefore be a percentage of banks' finance from wholesale sources, which is one possible proxy of the risks they run - and the basis for a $100bn-plus tax recently announced by President Obama.

The Obama tax model is also one that the Tories have for some week indicated they like.
[..]
It is striking however that the Treasury has moved away from supporting a tax on financial transactions, or a so-called Tobin tax." [http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/03/cameron_tories_would_tax_the_b.html ]

And now today's news release outlying the position of the party [still] expected to win the elections (with a unilateral UK action on bank tax being taken seriously, in opposition to the Brown's 'agreement seeking'): "Bank tax plan to be announced by Tories" : "Labour has said it favours such a tax, but only with international agreement." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8577603.stm]
 
Taxes are headed higher on investment income on a number of fronts. It's been obvious that Democrats want Wall Street and investors to pay more._

The health care bill is being financed with a new tax on investment income, the 3.8% Medicare tax. _Will Section 475 MTM trading gains be exempt from this tax? I will cover this on my blog soon.

The Bush tax cuts expire as of year-end 2010 and qualifying dividends will no longer apply. That means the ordinary tax rate applies rather than the lower long-term capital gains tax rate on qualifying dividends.

The highest ordinary rate returns to 39.6% in 2011. With the healthcare tax, the tax rate on qualifying dividends will rise from 15% to 43.4%. Such a large increase in the dividends tax is bound to effect dividend paying stocks.

The bank liability tax remains in the works. With the health care investment tax being broadly-based on upper-income investors, the bank tax makes more sense than a FTT so it's targeted on banks rather than investors - taxing them twice. It's also not as bad to tax income instead of financials transactions including losing trades.___

The President and Democrats also want to repeal carried interest tax breaks for investment managers.

At this point, they seem to cover all bases - investors, banks and hedge funds. Plus financial reform too.

Isn't that enough disproportionate new taxes to raise from one group? Going further with an industry-killing financial-transaction tax seems unwise and unfair. Wall Street and investors are paying for health care including jobs and more. _

Thumbed on my iPhone.
 
Germany falling into line :

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Ge...ce-of-global-deal-2010-03-22T142733Z-UPDATE-2

BERLIN, March 22 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition has agreed to place a levy on banks to raise billions of euros for future bailouts, boosting the chances of a global deal later this year.

Berlin's move means it is no longer left pushing for a Tobin tax on financial transactions that is already dead in the water after the United States and Canada rejected it.

Britain has already back-pedalled on its support for a Tobin tax and is set to propose a levy on Wednesday, putting pressure on France to fall in line, making a G20 summit agreement on bank levies more likely in June. [...]

[...]G20 DEAL CLOSER

The G20 has asked the International Monetary Fund to propose next month ways to recoup bank bailout costs. Its managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said last week a transaction tax was unworkable but that he would propose a tax of some sort.[...]

[...][Finance Minister]Schaeuble said Germany would have liked to consider introducing a tax on financial transactions, but this was only possible if it was implemented on a global scale.

"And at the moment, there is no realistic chance for this," he said.
 
Quote from Explorer:

Germany falling into line :

http://www.forexyard.com/en/news/Ge...ce-of-global-deal-2010-03-22T142733Z-UPDATE-2

BERLIN, March 22 (Reuters) - Germany's coalition has agreed to place a levy on banks to raise billions of euros for future bailouts, boosting the chances of a global deal later this year.

Berlin's move means it is no longer left pushing for a Tobin tax on financial transactions that is already dead in the water after the United States and Canada rejected it.

Britain has already back-pedalled on its support for a Tobin tax and is set to propose a levy on Wednesday, putting pressure on France to fall in line, making a G20 summit agreement on bank levies more likely in June. [...]

[...]G20 DEAL CLOSER

The G20 has asked the International Monetary Fund to propose next month ways to recoup bank bailout costs. Its managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said last week a transaction tax was unworkable but that he would propose a tax of some sort.[...]

[...]Schaeuble said Germany would have liked to consider introducing a tax on financial transactions, but this was only possible if it was implemented on a global scale.

"And at the moment, there is no realistic chance for this," he said.
More...

These countries are all caving in just like the House Dems did on healthcare (LOL). Some good news for a change though:)

-Guru
 
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