From: Jurriaan Bendien (adsl675281@TISCALI.NL)
Date: Fri Mar 23 2007 - 20:23:35 EDT
On the Tobin Tax: Larry Elliott: "The problem with the Tobin tax is that... it won't really have any impact. You need much more direct controls on capital. It is very unfashionable to say, because people who have an interest in having no controls run most of the world financial system... Chile has a system of taxing speculative flows. It welcomes direct investments to build factories. But if you want to come in with some hot money, park it there for a week and take it out again, then you pay a 30 percent tax. It is quite successful." Bernie Fraser (former governor, Reserve Bank of Australia): "The Tobin Initiative is not practicable in my view as it requires more than 160 countries to agree to impose it, and this is very unlikely to happen. Some of the biggest banking systems in the world are in places like the Cayman Islands. I am skeptical that there can ever be an international agreement on taxation, which is the reason why I think we have to focus harder on taxation at the national level." (both quoted in Jocelyn Pixley, Emotions in Finance: Distrust and Uncertainty in Global Markets, CUP 2004, p. 192). The best modern example of an attempt to harmonise tax systems internationally is the EU, but so far not all that much harmonisation has occurred. If that is the case, a Tobin tax is unlikely to be a winner. The taxation issue is one of the most sensitive issues of bourgeois society, and let's not forget that the original bourgeois conquest of state power in Europe was spurred by tax revolts. http://www.idebate.org/debatabase/topic_details.php?topicID=22 Overall taxation and social security contributions as a percentage of GDP, for example, varies between under 34% in Greece to nearly 55% in Sweden (the EU average is 42.6%). Direct taxes - mostly personal income tax and company taxation - vary between 9% of GDP in Greece to over 32% in Denmark (EU average 13.7%). Indirect taxes - that is, mainly VAT and excise duties - vary between about 11% of GDP in Spain to over 19% in Denmark (EU average 13.8%). And social security contributions vary from only 1.7% of GDP in Denmark to over 19% in France (EU average 15.1%). http://www.europarl.europa.eu/factsheets/3_4_9_en.htm Jurriaan
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