FTT: Higher taxation of off-exchange trade

Vice-President of the European Parliament, Othmar Karas MEP, calls for a higher taxation of off-exchange trade when setting up the Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). Othmar Karas has been appointed negotiator of the EPP Group for the new tax which is going to be introduced in eleven Member States only.

Mr Karas pointed out his goals in the negotiations with the other political groups in the Parliament: "I want to tax the over-the-counter trade at a higher rate - that is all the off-exchange business. I want the FTT to evolve into an EU own resource. And in the medium term, all EU countries have to be included", he said.

Othmar Karas emphasised how important it is to set the new tax up in a way that it acts in a regulative way: "The tax should not be in the first place a cash cow, but a regulative instrument for the markets. If we put more tax on everything that happens outside stock exchanges, then trade gets directed away from non-regulated markets into regulated markets. That increases market transparency", explained Mr Karas.

The Vice-President of the European Parliament recalled that the scope of the new tax is "only the 4th best solution". "It would have been much better to introduce the FTT at a global level, at EU level or at least for all Eurozone countries."

Parliament already  gave the green light for eleven Member States to go it alone in December, after plans for a joint introduction of the new tax in the entire EU failed. Yesterday's Commission proposal is a concrete plan for the introduction of the new tax. Parliament will vote on it probably in July 2013.