The finance ministers of the ten countries participating in the financial transactions tax (FTT) will meet on Tuesday 21 February, just ahead of the Ecofin Council, to answer a number of questions to see whether the concerns expressed by Belgium and Slovakia over the course of the negotiations are ultimately surmountable.
These two countries are calling for the activities of pension funds to be protected. Belgium is required by a governmental agreement to make sure of this. In December 2016, the two countries tabled the joint proposal for an exemption to be proposed as an option for countries wishing to take it up (see EUROPE 11712).
A document prepared for a similar meeting that was to have been held in January, of which we have had sight, therefore asks the delegations whether an exemption to the tax should be permissible for pension funds. Should this exemption be an option for the participating member states, or compulsory? If it should be an option, would the participating states not applying this exemption be entitled to tax their proportions (of the financial transaction)? The document goes on to ask which sectors should be covered by the exemption: pension funds only, or insurance as well?
Belgium and Slovakia, however, fear that the anti-abuse clause of the future directive mistakenly covers certain companies that should be taxed. This clause essentially states that any business, institution, entity or person the annual value of whose financial transactions represents more than 50% of net turnover should not be covered by the tax. Should this clause be left as it is, amended or deleted altogether? (Original version in French by Élodie Lamer)