Canada Nixes Tax 'Out of Hand'

[Blue_Tires]

Canada's top treasury official said the country is "rejecting out of hand" any attempt to impose a global tax levy on banks, sending an uncompromising message to the effort to force banks to pay for future financial crises through tax.

In an interview, Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said his country is pushing the Group of 20 leading economies to adopt the sort of leverage requirements for global banks that helped Canadian banks avert the worst of the credit crisis.

Last year, U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he favored some kind of tax or levy on the financial sector as a way to fund any future bank rescues. Mr. Brown presented four possible options, including a so-called Tobin tax on securities trading and a fund into which banks paid money that could be used to bail them out. President Obama has also called for a "financial crisis responsibility fee" for the U.S., designed to recoup taxpayer funds used in bank bailouts and reduce risk-taking by banks.

Mr. Brown has recently said he was optimistic there is a global consensus on the issue of a global level. He has also lately broadened his definition of a tax, saying "proceeds should be for national governments to use, whether to put them aside in a dedicated insurance fund, to repay interventions or to reduce public debt."

Speaking in London, Mr. Flaherty said Canada is firmly against the idea of a tax. "We are rejecting it out of hand," Mr. Flaherty said.

The Canadian government's view carries added weight given that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently co-chairman of the G-20.

A U.K. official said the U.K. is still trying to find an approach that everyone is "comfortable" with.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125963269822660.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_business

[HeresyLives]

1. Because that's their only policy: cut taxes.

Other than that they go along with whatever the Americans are doing.

Cons haven't had one original policy since they started.

[Spazito]

2. LOL, I hope harper and his minions receive the same 'respect' they got...

at the Climate Change conference, NONE. I laughed out loud at this:

"The Canadian government's view carries added weight given that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is currently co-chairman of the G-20."

Only Murdoch's Wall Street Journal would print an idiotic statement like that, imo.

[HeresyLives]

3. They all take turns being chair, so it means nothing.

And while each chair announces something for the agenda...Harper's 'women and children' no-contraception policy this time...they discuss what the crisis of the day is instead. In this round it will be global finance.

[Spazito]

4. Exactly!

It was simply Canada's 'turn' to host, it certainly doesn't give the host leader any extra clout at all. I am getting a smell of a bit of desperation on the part of the harper cabal in that they are trying SO hard to 'repair' harper's image and, for some strange reason, think this bit of international attention will do that. I think not.