Will this proposed tax on financial transactions solve anything, or will it just prolong the inevitable? Does Boris (mayor of London) have a good point, or is it scaremongering on behalf of the big banks? And finally, do you think other governments will follow Europe if it is introduced? IMHO, in the longterm I don't think it will achieve much, another 'kick the can' scenario. But it could put a dampener on high frequency trading if it was set high enough. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/...n-reject-transaction-tax?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487
GST increase is off the table. Negative gearing change is unpalatable for the landed gentry. Why not go with a Tobin tax? If average voter pays 10% consumption tax, how is it unfair to apply a fraction of a percent to speculative financial transactions?
Understood and agreed, but let's assume that we're going to spend billions on submarines and jets and someone has to pay for it. Given the tax options, is a Tobin tax feasible if it reduces income and company tax?
It's only as feasible as the timeline until the next demand on government expenditure in other words, it's not. The only tax option is a reduction in tax.
I'm a huge fan of more subs, but there'll be so much political dicking around that we'll end up making a shit decision and spend far too much. So how about if we could have new subs and jets, better training for the military and for police, lots of cool equipment, etc. without increasing taxes? We could. There are plenty of areas of government spending that could be cut, and why not tackle the big ones first for maximum savings? I'm talking about the inefficiencies, complexity and waste that comes from multiple levels of government, especially when involved with taxation. If we want a genuine "efficiency dividend", do something meaningful about that. And then there is local councils which appear to be little more than a harbour for petty endemic corruption and provide a means for channeling taxpayer funds to criminals who seem to do so well in local government. Clean that shit up before raising taxes.
The wealthy will just emigrate negating any benefit. That's what I would do if there was an extra tax placed on financial transactions or a tax on trading financial instruments like shares or futures etc. There's also Laffer and his drifting curveball
^ I wish I had good stock market knowledge to make my spare money work for me instead of earning peanuts sitting in a bank savings account. :/ I will happily pay the tax I earn on it.
Why would you be happy to pay more tax? To pay for other people's middle class welfare, government incompetent policy decisions or paying for TheEnd's lifestyle choices? You would already be paying CGT if you invested in shares.
For the extra money I could earn on profits from share market trading if I was knowledgeable in that area but I'm not. I was just making a point because of the peanuts return I'm getting on my savings account.
