How would the financial transaction tax affect London/UK?

gagahouse

drc wrote: »

A follow on from the original question - what percentage of UK tax receipts are produced by the financial services industry (i.e. how dependant is the UK on this sector for tax receipts?).

The study looks at UK tax payments by financial services (FS) companies in
their accounting year ended in the tax year to March 2010 (2010). We
estimate that for 2010 the financial sector as a whole made a Total Tax
Contribution of £53.4 billion, which is 11.2% of total government tax receipts,
from all taxes, for that year. The FS sector is therefore a major contributor to UK
public finances.
The figures have fallen since our last study a year ago. The results of the 2009
study suggested a Total Tax Contribution for the FS sector of £61.4 billion, or
12.1% of government tax receipts. The 2010 study shows lower figures for
corporation tax paid, irrecoverable VAT and employment taxes borne and
collected.
Looking at just corporation tax alone, total receipts from the FS sector have
fallen from £7.6bn in 2009 to £5.6bn in 2010. Nevertheless, the FS sector
remains the largest sector paying CT in 2010, ahead of oil and gas companies
operating in the North Sea.

The FS sector employed over one million workers at March 2010, which is a
significant part (3.5%) of the total UK workforce. We estimate that the sector
generated total employment taxes of £24.5bn in 2010 (including both
employers and employees NIC and income tax deducted under PAYE).
Employment taxes are therefore an important part of the Total Tax
Contribution from the sector.
However, job losses in the sector have reduced these figures since last year.
The FS sector lost 91,000 or 7.9% of jobs between 2009 and 2010 and
employment taxes directly generated by employment in the sector also fell
by a similar amount (7.4%). Whether these figures fall further, or increase, in
the future, will depend upon recovery in the sector and how far FS companies
can hold onto or create new jobs.

http://217.154.230.218/NR/rdonlyres/68F49A7E-8255-415B-99A8-1A8273D568D9/0/TotalTax3_FinalForWeb.pdf

drc

Just reading the comments about the Tobin tax at the Guardian website; http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/18/tobin-tax-city-london-john-major

Some interesting comments and they mostly seem to think it is a good idea. I found this one interesting;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/13349177

sionnyn
18 November 2011 8:33PM
Regulatory arbitrage? !!!!!!?

These areseholes are telling us that they will move elsewhere if the tobin tax is imposed. Let them. We won't have to bail them out next time they !!!! up. So much lies being to ld about this - Pension and investment funds will not be affected because they buy and hold and hardly ever sell - the people who will be affected are the pure speculators who buy and sell in high volume to turn a small profit. That de-stabilises the market. Shares are already taxed (stamp duty) - it is FX and Derivatives that really need taxing to stop the volatility.

sheffield_lad

drc wrote: »

Just reading the comments about the Tobin tax at the Guardian website; http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/18/tobin-tax-city-london-john-major

Some interesting comments and they mostly seem to think it is a good idea. I found this one interesting;

http://www.guardian.co.uk/discussion/comment-permalink/13349177

Nothing I read there looked good.

I guess if you think the bankers are the cause of all the worlds woes it looks good to bash them but this tax hurts the Germans and French far far less than it will effect London. We are the worlds financial capital these days lets hope the hunn don't ruin it.

drc

howee wrote: »

Nothing I read there looked good.

I guess if you think the bankers are the cause of all the worlds woes it looks good to bash them but this tax hurts the Germans and French far far less than it will effect London. We are the worlds financial capital these days lets hope the hunn don't ruin it.

Maybe it will be good in the sense that the UK (and London especially) might actually have to create/revive real industry and produce things rather than relying on the financial sector (and all the problems that come with the financial sector) for jobs and tax receipts. Unfortunately I think the tax would be very damaging to the UK but I think it is sad that we as a country are so reliant on the financial services industry that if they decide to move to a country where there is no Tobin tax, the UK would lose a lot of tax receipts. In my opinion, no country should be reliant on one industry (or one city come to think of it) to produce the majority of the income for that country.

grizzly1911

drc wrote: »

Maybe it will be good in the sense that the UK (and London especially) might actually have to create/revive real industry and produce things rather than relying on the financial sector (and all the problems that come with the financial sector) for jobs and tax receipts. Unfortunately I think the tax would be very damaging to the UK but I think it is sad that we as a country are so reliant on the financial services industry that if they decide to move to a country where there is no Tobin tax, the UK would lose a lot of tax receipts. In my opinion, no country should be reliant on one industry (or one city come to think of it) to produce the majority of the income for that country.

+1.

In respect of the OP bad on all three counts.

At the end of the day, the tax, as Mr Mumble says will eventually settle on Joe Public one way or another and Banks are pretty good at passing on any increase in costs to them.

thor

ILW wrote: »

I think all the smellies camped outside St Pauls think it's a great idea.
Cos it's all the bankers fault innit.

Well it is actually. The top bankers are paid very handsomely(far more than the salaries of MPs I might add) yet they obviously were not competent enough to let greed get in the way of their judgement so started gambling with loans willy nilly. As a result banks became holders of bad debt and confidence of the stock markets was lost. The public caught on and stopped spending which resulted in companies beginning to go under and hence reduce tax take for governments.
Of course most of these shysters got away with it due to various government failures and people were not forced to take out loans(although the ones dishing them out were being paid to weed out the high risks, something they failed to do).
So yes it was the bankers that did it! I could have lost far less for a fraction of their earnings.