First, banks are likely to pass on the burden of this tax almost completely to their customers through higher bank interest margins and bank fees. This makes the Financial Activities Tax a tax on bank customers rather than on bank shareholders. Since the Financial Transactions Tax (ie, Tobin, or Robin Hood) also falls on customers,

France and Germany have proposed a crackdown on tax havens and offshore financial centres, insisting that banks that use them be forced to put aside higher capital to offset the risk to the financial system

Owen Tudor and Richard Murphy both claim that the IMF’s report out today supports their case for a financial transactions tax. Sadly they’re both blathering (if not in fact being deliberately obtuse to the point of mendacity). This is the same report that was leaked a couple of months back. My response is here. What the IMF actually

Conservative donor and vice-chairman admits he is a "non-dom" for tax purposes but signals he will give up his non-domiciled status and bring his financial affairs within the UK tax system if the Conservatives win.

Nick at the Capitalists says the crisis is starting to hit the energy sector: Needless to say, the financial players in the electricity market are withdrawing from long-term hedging products, which means the utilities are increasingly unable to lay off the risk. So they'll be passing the volatility through in the electricity price - and the industrials also won't be able to get financial...

FSA chairman draws fire from bankers, City and politicians after suggesting global transaction tax, higher reserves and warns of overlarge financial industry

David Cameron has committed the Conservative Party to imposing a new tax on banks as both main parties battled to convince voters they would claw back billions of pounds from the financial sector.

A momentous week for the Robin Hood Tax this week has included the third Global Day of Action and movement at last from the European Commission. After months of delay and originally a firm rejection of financial transaction taxes, certainly at EU or Eurozone level, it now looks likely that an upcoming report will say that a Europe-level Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) is feasible.

The European Parliament has published its report on its budgetary and financial management during financial year 2008. It outlines the financial situation and the events which have had a significant influence on activities during the year (in parts I and II)and gives a synthetic account of the achievement of the objectivesfor the year (in part III). Source: European Parliament: Report on budgetary...

Labour has called on Westminster voters to deliver a resounding defeat on the Conservative Councillors responsible for a catalogue of financial blunders over recent years. Labour say the Conservatives have been responsible for huge financial blunders, losses and increased charges, for example; Icelandic Bank failures * The Conservatives invested £17 million in now failed Icelandic Banks with...