Tobin Tax: a sad little story of how taxing demagogy impoverishes the country
We publish a speech by Giulio Centemero, deputy, group leader in the Finance Commission and treasurer of the League
Dear Director, as I recalled last week at the Wednesday meeting of Americans for Tax Reforms , a think tank led by the legendary Grover Norquist – who finds his Italian equivalent in the Mercatus Institute – and in my short speech on Economy , so that the financial markets are efficient, and provide liquidity to companies, obstacles must be eliminated, first of all those relating to investments. Without too much in-depth analysis, it is therefore immediately evident that in the Italian panorama, the first asymmetrical measure to be eliminated is the distorting Tobin Tax , a tax of Community origin that is applied only in Italy and partially in France.
I would not want it to seem like a preconceived idea, an unmotivated persistence, my personal idiosyncrasy that I am supporting as much as possible in my parliamentary and non-parliamentary activity, because it is instead a self-evident deduction, under the eyes of anyone who wants to observe the data of the MEF and a study by Ambromobiliare . In fact, both show that this tax not only penalizes the Italian financial sector but in fact does not bring anything significant to the treasury, contrary to what was expected on the eve of its introduction. That the Italian version of the Tobin Tax would have been to the detriment of the market, Nicola Porro noticed, among others, on 15 December 2013, with the laconic headline on the ilgiornale.it blog: "As expected: the Tobin hole arrives" , almost to describe it as a "hole band" operation.
A further interesting reading that confirms the flop is in the proceedings of the conference "More equity and resources for growth" , held on March 3, 2014 at the Chamber of Deputies, by the then president of the Budget Commission, Francesco Boccia. I briefly report some provocative reflections from the speech by Alessandro Valeri, president of Intermonte SIM Spa who on that occasion, addressing the politicians, stated:
“What is the sense and logic of economic policy with the Renzi government of having a tax that only us and the French have in all of Europe (and in France they manage to evade it)? Second, why does the tax only apply to 2 percent of all Italian financial transactions and not to all transactions? The tax applies only to stock transactions but not to all, only to about one third. In fact, only long-term institutional investors pay. "
In short, even Valeri already noted in 2013 that it was a tax to the detriment of the Italian market alone (in spite of community harmonization), which in addition affected and also affects a specific category of operators, and in a completely crazy way, I would add, precisely those who invest in the long term and therefore do not carry out speculative operations.
Another important consideration in Valeri's report was that the Tobin Tax has in fact contributed to “delocalising” Borsa Italiana in geographies where such taxes do not exist, a consideration that I agree with and subscribe to. Another evidence, not least, that emerges from this reading is the skepticism about this tax already marked even among some representatives of the center left.
In short, if the initial objective of the Monti government was to bring in new revenue for one billion euros, we can say with the utmost tranquility and safety, summing up, that the objective has not been achieved. The data for 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 show us a decreasing trend in tax revenue: from 432 million to 196 million. Not to mention the volume of shares traded on the Milan Stock Exchange, which from a million and eighty drops steadily to 346,000 in 2020.
It is useless to repeat in these pages that in my opinion the Italian Tobin Tax is a tax, like many others, which must be eliminated tout court because it is harmful and useless. In fact, the time has come in which from thought to action and this is the spirit in which I presented an amendment in the tax delegation law: I hope to find bipartisan support. However, we will find out soon: after the match for the Colle, the Finance Committee in the House will pass the examination of the amendments. Stay Tuned!
The post Tobin Tax: a sad little story of how taxing demagogy impoverishes the country appeared first on Atlantico Quotidiano .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/tobin-tax-piccola-storia-triste-di-come-la-demagogia-tassatrice-impoverisce-il-paese/ on Tue, 25 Jan 2022 03:53:00 +0000.