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COMMENT: Watching the stunning developments in Europe, we’ve experienced considerable alarm in the contemplation of when the German-engineered nightmare unfolding there would cross the Atlantic.
Of particular significance in this context is the creeping negation of democratic process and national sovereignty manifesting in Europe. We have wondered how long it will be before “it’s our turn.”
(Recall that the plan for a Europa Germanica, building on the theoretical structure of Friedrich von List, envisioned the gradual tethering of the United States to an economically united and German-dominated Europe.)
It is against this background that we view with misgivings a proposal that would permit the German tax authorities to collect a tax on transactions between a UK and US institution, if it involved shares of a German company.
In addition to representing encroachment on UK sovereignty, this gambit might set a precedent that would see the United States gradually subsumed into the German economic playbook.
A nation’s fiscal autonomy and ability to raise revenue is fundamental to national sovereignty. Whether through levies/taxation, the issuance of sovereign bonds or adjusting currency exchange rates, this is central to the functional autonomy of any society.
Although the FTT application hypothesized above might seem trivial, but it is a harbinger of US/EU (read “German”) fiscal integration. What comes next, from the rule-changing troika/
The US should studiously avoid becoming enmeshed in the European spider web.
Stay tuned.
EXCERPT: The House of Lords European Union Committee has warned that a Financial Transaction Tax within parts of the European Union will have “far-reaching adverse consequences for UK resident institutions,” and it has urged the Treasury to take advice on a possible legal challenge at the European Court of Justice.
Eleven European Union countries have so far agreed to implement the tax. However, although the tax has been dismissed by UK Prime Minister David Cameron as “simply madness,” a letter from committee chairman Lord Boswell to Greg Clark MP, financial secretary at HM Treasury, accuses the Government of “complacency” on the issue. The letter warns that UK financial institutions will have to pay the tax when dealing with countries that have the FTT; this is because of the issuance principle, which seeks to prevent avoidance by taxing financial instruments when traded, even if those conducting the transaction are outside the FTT zone.
According to the committee, this could leave the UK liable even for tax claimed against companies in foreign jurisdictions, particularly those in the USA. The letter gives the example of a financial transaction involving German shares between a US and a UK institution: “Under the issuance principle this would give rise to FTT upon both parties PAYABLE TO THE GERMAN TAX AUTHORITIES. Given that collection of this tax from the US financial institution may be difficult, the proposal would enable the German tax authorities to impose joint and several liability for both instances of the FTT upon the UK financial institution and recover the whole amount using the EU mutual assistance regime.” (Emphasis added.)
Lord Boswell also highlights lack of detail as to how the tax will be collected and lack of clarity as to how the FTT will affect subsidiaries outside the FTT zone. . . .
. . . . Lord Harrison, who chairs the EU Sub-Committee on Economic and Financial Affairs, was quoted as saying that: “We are highly alarmed that so little attention has been given to the potential impact of an FTT on non-participating Member States such as the UK.
“Deutsche Bank has “zero tolerance” for tax evaders: CEO”
Reuters April 28, 2013
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/28/us-deutschebank-tax-idUSBRE93R05C20130428
“....if the bank had the slightest indication that foreign assets handled by the bank were not taxed, it would demand that customers prove the assets were legitimate.”.....
“Separately, UBS Chairman Axel Weber told Wirtschaftswoche magazine that Switzerland’s biggest bank would no longer do business with customers seeking to evade taxes.
“I am confident that we can persuade the affected customers to put their situation with the German tax authorities in order,” said Weber, who is a former Bundesbank president.”