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

andohmeeta · Sep 21, 2011

Some reluctant pearls of wisdom here:

http://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2011/sep/21/citylights1-transaction-tax/

If this headline, "EU Transaction Tax May Affect Non-EU Banks, Handelsblatt Says", indicates in any way that their EU proposal due out in two weeks could interfere with, or obstruct foreign business operations with non euro customers,

expect WWIII.

tomdavis · Sep 21, 2011

Malta is also against the FTT. They're against any EU imposed tax.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/article...to-insist-on-financial-transaction-tax.382954

Malta, which has a thriving financial services industry, is opposed to the introduction of the [financial transactions] tax in the EU, arguing that restricting it to Europe would damage the territoryâs competitiveness in respect to states that do not have it.

...

In its proposals for the next Budget, published last June, the Commission is also suggesting the introduction of an EU-wide VAT. This will mean that a percentage of VAT proceeds from all member states will be passed to the EUâs coffers. Malta has already said that it also opposes this proposal because it considers taxation as a national issue and outside the EUâs remit.

Quote from FightTheFuture:

EU-27 Bulgaria opposes FTT.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-introduction-of-new-taxes-across-the-eu.html

forex1407 · Sep 21, 2011

I read a news in french from Reuters about the tax soon proposed by European commission.

-We learn that the tax would not concern European retail traders (only institutions and banks who trade on european and foreign markets)

-The tax would concern shares, bonds (0.1%) and derivatives (0.01%)

- It would take effect on 2014

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actu...in-europeenne-pour-2014-sans-les-changes.html

tomdavis · Sep 21, 2011

They will try to make the tax look small and harmless, but keep in mind this quote from EU Tax Commissioner Semeta: "The moment in which we introduce a tax on financial transactions on a global level, of course, everything looks different. Then we can also raise the tax rates."

Quote from forex1407:

I read a news in french from Reuters about the tax soon proposed by European commission.

-We learn that the tax would not concern European retail traders (only institutions and banks who trade on european and foreign markets)

-The tax would concern shares, bonds (0.1%) and derivatives (0.01%)

- It would take effect on 2014

http://tempsreel.nouvelobs.com/actu...in-europeenne-pour-2014-sans-les-changes.html

FightTheFuture · Sep 21, 2011

BRASILIA, Sept 21 (Reuters) - Brazil's lower house of Congress on Wednesday rejected a government proposal to create a new tax on financial transactions to pay for healthcare

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/21/brazil-politics-health-idUSS1E78K0PN20110921

FightTheFuture · Sep 22, 2011

Companies donât pay taxes: we do. A Tobin Tax will cost us far more than it collects

http://www.cityam.com/forum/compani...o-tobin-tax-will-cost-us-far-more-it-collects

MrPowerBallad · Sep 22, 2011

Here's a new one -- place a trade, cancel it, and still get taxed:

The proposal would tax derivatives based on their notional amount; the taxable amount wouldnât be affected if a trade were subsequently cancelled or changed, except in cases of genuine error, according to the document.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-financial-transaction-tax-official-says.html

listedguru · Sep 22, 2011

Quote from MrPowerBallad:

Here's a new one -- place a trade, cancel it, and still get taxed:

The proposal would tax derivatives based on their notional amount; the taxable amount wouldnât be affected if a trade were subsequently cancelled or changed, except in cases of genuine error, according to the document.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...-financial-transaction-tax-official-says.html

So does this mean they arn't going to spell out the rates in their proposal? So they want everyone to agree to the tax first and then fill in the rates? WTF

"The proposal will include different rates for various kinds of products. In general, the proposed tax would be at a low rate, although the proposal doesnât specify rates, the official said, adding that the plan wonât have different rates for retail and institutional investors."

-Guru

tomdavis · Sep 22, 2011

In the short run, this isn't about tax rates. The EU taxocrats will agree to any tax rate that casts the FTT net as broadly as possible. Their strategy has two steps:

step1 -- short term strategy: implement a broad FTT with very low rates to bring in as many countries as possible;

step 2 -- long term strategy: raise the rates as high as possible.

Here's what EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said about the tax rate-setting strategy: "The moment in which we introduce a tax on financial transactions on a global level, of course, everything looks different. Then we can also raise the tax rates."

Quote from listedguru:

So does this mean they arn't going to spell out the rates in their proposal? So they want everyone to agree to the tax first and then fill in the rates? WTF

"The proposal will include different rates for various kinds of products. In general, the proposed tax would be at a low rate, although the proposal doesnât specify rates, the official said, adding that the plan wonât have different rates for retail and institutional investors."

-Guru

benwm · Sep 22, 2011

Quote from tomdavis:

In the short run, this isn't about tax rates. The EU taxocrats will agree to any tax rate that casts the FTT net as broadly as possible. Their strategy has two steps:

step1 -- short term strategy: implement a broad FTT with very low rates to bring in as many countries as possible;

step 2 -- long term strategy: raise the rates as high as possible.

Here's what EU Tax Commissioner Algirdas Semeta said about the tax rate-setting strategy: "The moment in which we introduce a tax on financial transactions on a global level, of course, everything looks different. Then we can also raise the tax rates."

Did they not pause to wonder what effect such taxes might have on financing the cost of their debt? Destroy liqiudity and watch those bond yields shoot up!

Talk about straw that breaks the camels back.