Would a Financial Transactions Tax hurt Europe’s economy?

The EU first proposed a Financial Transactions Tax in 2011. 

The idea was to make the “financial sector pays its fair share” for the 2008 financial crisis (and to discourage excessive speculation) by levying a small charge on certain financial sector activities. However, the proposal seemingly fizzled out (and Brexit has complicated negotiations further, given that the large UK financial sector is now outside the Single Market). Nevertheless, discussions are ongoing, albeit only among a smaller group of ten EU Member States under “Enhanced Cooperation” rules, and the Commission has said it still intends to introduce an FTT by 2026.

What do our readers think? 

We had comments on this topic from Tim, Jeremy and John. To get a reaction to their comments, we put them to Kira Marie Peter-Hansen, a Danish MEP who sits with the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament and is Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Tax Matters. You can see her responses in the video above.

Would a Financial Transactions Tax hurt Europe’s economy? 

Would an FTT encourage investors to abandon Europe and take their business to other markets? And should the money raised by such a tax go to the EU or should it rather go to help tackle global poverty?

Image by katemangostar on Freepik

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.