Germany mulls financial transactions tax

(Reuters): Chancellor Angela Merkel’s German conservative party may push for a financial transactions tax initially covering just Germany, France and Austria rather than all euro-zone states, parliamentary sources said on Friday. Sources within Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) said the aim would still be to achieve wider adoption of the tax proposal — which has failed to gain global support — with other countries able to join later. But a spokeswoman for Germany’s Finance Ministry said the country had no plans for a so-called Tobin tax in an area smaller than the 17-country euro zone. "I can say that an introduction below the size of the euro zone does not make sense," she told a news conference, adding that talks to get the tax implemented across the European Union were continuing.

The idea of a transaction tax, often referred to as a Tobin Tax after the U.S. economist who floated it in the 1970s, has gained support since the financial crisis, although proposals for its introduction internationally have so far failed.

Go to article