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

EU lawyers say transaction tax plan is illegal

(Reuters) - A plan to tax financial transactions in 11 European Union member states from 2014 is illegal, the bloc's lawyers have concluded, dealing what could be a final blow to the measure as proposed.
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/10/uk-eu-transactiontax-exclusive-idUKBRE9890JG20130910


Also, from the FT:

[...]The Council legal service paper challenges one of the core parts of the so-called “residence principle” – taxing institutions according to where their headquarters are based, rather than where the trade is executed.

It concluded the definition of where a group is established “exceeds member States’ jurisdiction for taxation under the norms of international customary law as they are understood by the union”.

It added that the measure “is not compatible” with the EU treaties “as it infringes upon the taxing competences of non-participating member states”. Finally it found that the provision was “discriminatory and likely to lead to distortion of competition to the detriment of non participating member states”.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b0a6c7a8-19fd-11e3-93e8-00144feab7de.html?siteedition=uk
 
http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2013/09/10/eu-transaction-tax-hits-a-major-legal-snag/

"Call me old fshioned, or just old, but couldn’t/shouldn’t they have sorted out the legaility of the idea first before throwing a load of Euros at the badly conceived project?"

I too would like to know how much european instances have spent on this project. Remember those guys are "top level civil servants" with 6 figures income out of our pockets and they dedicate all their time to this stupid project ...And it can't even pass the legality stage...Mr Semeta was so sure Brittain had no case...LOL
 
excellent. voice of reason at least. and thanks to the european commission for spending millions of our money on an extremely stupid plan, apparently without first checking it with their own legal council.
 
Quote from TraDaToR:

Final nail in the coffin, and now all the tax staff of the EC should resign if they have just an once of self esteem.
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This sounds like the final nail in the extraterritorial stuff.
But they could still come up with stamp tax on their own exchanges.
 
Thats fine. Treating every trader in the world as an economic slave, if they were nationals trading on other exchanges out side of the country or those exposed around the world was an insulting proposal.

If they are so confident with high taxes they can apply them to their own exchanges and people will have a choice, the thing is, these guys do not operate so well and are rather timid with what they do when people have a choice..

Quote from slumdog:

This sounds like the final nail in the extraterritorial stuff.
But they could still come up with stamp tax on their own exchanges.
More...
 
Wasn't there a report back in May saying that some of the 11 states were getting cold feet and were looking for a dignified exit (or words to that effect)?

Having the Council's own lawyers declare it illegal is a pretty useful exit rationale for those countries, as in -

"We desperately wanted to see a FTT to make the financial sector pay it's fair share, but sadly we cannot pursue this approach for legal reasons. However, we will endeavour to explore with other countries alternative ideas to ensure that the financial sector contributes to the cost of the crisis... " blah blah blah...

A co-ordinated stamp duty type thing could still happen among a sub-group of the 11 countries but I really doubt they'll find unanimity among all 11 now - maybe a handful of countries could agree though.
 
EU Trading Tax Plan Hits Legal Snag - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324094704579066880963044814.html

Add Comments. Here's mine.

The trader tax is clearly illegal. For sure, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are working together to force the UK - who voted no - to allow decimatation of London-based exchanges and financial markets with application of the EU trader tax.

It's pig headed and wrong for the European Commission to push the trader tax forward when the EU legal body declared it's illegal. Their opinion is clear and unassailable. Any school kid can see that Germany and France are trying to wrestle away banking from London where 70% of EU financial transactions take place.

They know unless they make it extra-territorial, financial business will flood out of the continent even more to London. But, the extra-territorial clauses make it illegal. That's why it's a dumb plan and give it up.
 
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