Helen Lethaby casts a critical eye over recent developments.
One might be forgiven for thinking that some sort of tax ‘silly season’ began on 14 February. Not only did the European Commission publish its revised proposal for an EU financial transaction tax (FTT) intended to be implemented by certain member states under the enhanced cooperation procedure but the UK government announced its intention to force bidders for central government above-threshold procurements to self-certify their ‘tax compliance’ for the last ten years or more.
France Germany Italy and Spain are four of the eleven members states which will form the ‘FTT zone’. Key features of the draft ‘Council Directive implementing enhanced cooperation in the area of financial transaction tax’ mostly derived from the Commission’s original proposal...
