Financial transaction tax´s impact on state pensions open

In view of the current debate on the introduction of a tax on financial transactions, CESI Vice-President Urs Stauffer recalls that austerity measures alone will not lead to balanced state budgets. According to Stauffer, additional measures to increase the revenuesof EU states will be necessary.

The introduction of a tax on financial transactions would be one such measure, as it would raise a tax on all stock market and off-market sales of securities, as well as on derivative and currency transactions to ensure that the tax could also be applied to off-market financial transactions.

If applied to all transactions in the entire EU, estimates point at revenues of over 100 billion Euros. “A tax on financial transactions would hence represent an important and necessary contribution towards the balancing of state budgets, as well as towards the regulation of the international financial sector,” Urs Stauffer points out. 

The CESI Vice-President underlines however, that the concrete impacts of this tax on state pensions and other pension funds remain unclear. When drafting the financial transaction tax in detail, its specific effects will therefore have to be taken into account.  

“It is high time that the international financial sector gives something back to society and actually play its proper role, that it, to serve the people – and not the other way around!” Mr Stauffer concludes.