ECOFIN will focus on taxation issues: financial transaction tax, tax avoidance and standard VAT return.
The Council will meet on November 7 in Brussels. They will discuss a proposal aimed at introducing a financial transaction tax (FTT) in 11 member states through the "enhanced cooperation" procedure.
The presidency has prepared a progress report setting out key open issues (doc. 14949/14). Enhanced cooperation was authorised in January 2013 by Council decision 2013/52/EU4 (doc. 16977/12), after a September 2011 proposal for an EU-wide FTT failed to obtain unanimous support. The participating countries are Austria, Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
A proposal for a directive defining how the FTT would be implemented in the 11 member states requires unanimous agreement of the participants. Tabled in February 2013 (doc. 6442/13), the proposal has the same scope and objectives as the Commission's initial proposal for an EU-wide FTT.
It involves a minimum 0.1% tax rate for transactions in all types of financial instruments, except for derivatives that would be subject to a minimum 0.01% tax rate. The proposal is aimed at ensuring that the financial sector makes a fair and substantial contribution to tax revenues. Alongside regulatory and supervisory measures, it also sets out to discourage transactions that do not enhance the efficiency of financial markets.
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