Just as David Cameron appeared to be grabbing his coat for an EU exit, other European countries took a step towards greater unity with agreement for eleven countries to implement a multi-billion pound tax on the banks.
Not tax rises on low income families, or cuts to public services to balance the books, but a tax on banks. It’s not every day you get to write that. The eleven hope that the Financial Transaction Tax of between 0.1-0.01 per cent on stocks, bonds and derivatives could be implemented as early as next year and will raise around £30bn.
The FTT has for years stirred controversy. Banks, following the Mayan’s lead, warned that the end of the world was nigh. As campaigners for a Robin Hood Tax we have often been told “you may have a nice video with Bill Nighy in it, but your idea won’t wash in the complex world of finance, nor will it cut it at the coalface of Government.”
Yet it has – Europe’s biggest economies including France, Germany, Italy and Spain are signed up. The group of eleven makes up an impressive 90 percent of Eurozone GDP. Other European nations agreed to let them press ahead. Yet there was one notable abstention, from the UK Government.
Why? It could be argued that a right of centre Government, a powerful financial sector and an economy struggling to return to growth would never add up to much of an appetite to take a chunk out of the banks. Yet all of this applies to Germany, one of the FTT’s biggest champions.
The difference is that Germany sees the FTT as a necessary part of the economic equation. It too is implementing tough austerity measures. Germany understands the need to balance and indeed improve the economy by ensuring the financial sector pays its fair share. The richest sector in the world, paying a modest additional tax for causing the largest financial crisis of a generation: quid pro quo.
As Wolfgang Schauble, German finance minister said:
It’s in the interest of the financial sector itself that it should concentrate more on its proper role of financing the real economy and ensuring that capital is allocated in the most intelligent way, instead of banks conducting the bulk of their trading on their own account. That’s in the long-term interest of the financial sector.
Cameron, conversely, opted to call the Financial Transaction Tax “madness”, fighting hammer and tong to protect the hallowed elite in the City, whilst cutting benefits and services for the poorest. The Government’s much touted bank levy, will raise a just £2.5bn a year and be offset by a lowering of Corporation Tax that Osborne has boasted will be the lowest of any major western economy.
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England pointed out the irony that “the price of the financial crisis is being borne by people who did absolutely nothing to cause it”, adding that he was “surprised that the degree of public anger has not been greater than it has”.
But if the moral argument doesn’t sway you, then the fiscal case should. Leading City figure Avinash Persaud has calculated that if the UK were to join in with the European Financial Transaction Tax it would raise the Exchequer at least £8bn a year. This could lift over three million people struggling on minimum pay above the living wage threshold.
Ten thousand teachers lost their jobs in 2010/2011 and there are 5,780 fewer nurses than at the time of the last general election – in eleven days an FTT could raise enough revenue to re-employ every one. In just a single day the tax could raise enough money to reinstate Sure Start centres for 25,000 children.
EU tax chief Algirdas Semeta described the FTT agreement as a “major milestone” that can “pave the way for others to do the same.” The door has been left open and we should continue to press the UK Government to walk through it. The Labour Party wanted cover to fully back this tax – they now have it.
But this doesn’t have to be another case of Britain versus Europe. The UK has already got an FTT on share transactions – stamp duty – that raises some £3bn a year for the Exchequer without driving business away. Extending this to bonds and derivatives is not a dramatic leap and surely one that makes moral and financial sense.
As Cameron distances himself from Europe this is one item we should be reminding him is still on the agenda.
Content from our partners
Related
