PwC's Managing upstream risk: Regulatory reform review - An asian perspective December 2013

2.12 International Taxation Update According to a report by Reuters dated 29 December 2013, The European Union’s Taxation Commissioner has said he is prepared to accept a more limited tax on financial transactions, following concerns from some countries that the scope of the original proposal was too wide. “We would support a compromise with a more limited remit... the only red line for us is that any loopholes which would jeopardise the main principle of the tax be avoided,” Algirdas Semeta said. 11 of the 28 EU countries have pledged to tax trades in stocks, bonds, derivatives and other financial transactions, to make banks pay for some of the taxpayer money they received during the 2007/09 financial crisis. Britain, the EU’s biggest trading centre, is challenging the tax in the EU’s highest court. France is already pushing for a more modest stamp duty-type tax on share trading, which it has introduced nationally, while Italy is worried about the impact on its sovereign debt. 24 Regulatory Reform Review | Banking

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