Clifford Chance
Financial Transaction Tax: Update
21 October 2011
Recent press coverage has speculated that the European Commission's proposed financial transaction tax (FTT) could be introduced by majority vote, even if the UK and others are opposed.
In this update, we look at whether these reports have any legal basis. We also look at two key difficulties with the current proposal: the “cascade” effect and the fact that, unlike UK and Irish stamp duty, the FTT incentivises banks and others to move their business out of the EU. Finally we attempt to predict what the likely future of the tax will be.
