Levy could raise up to €25bn from ‘under-taxed’ EU banks

BANKS are under-taxed in the EU, but new proposals to levy their activities could raise as much as €25 billion a year, the European Commission says.

Their study rules out a Financial Transactions Tax because although they estimate it could raise between €60 billion and €600bn globally, it would have to be applied by every country in the world.

Instead Taxation Commissioner Algirdas Semeta believes that a tax on financial activities could be imposed throughout the EU without placing Europe’s banks at a competitive disadvantage with the rest of the world.