Taxation of the financial sector: Regulatory and justification issues

Abstract

The so-called bank levy—a tax levied on bank leverage—has been proliferated to date. They are the product of reacting to the global financial crisis that started in the autumn of 2008. Therefore, they can only be understood in the context of the crisis. Since one or two decades, the financial industry has produced much innovation that is to be reflected in taxation. The application of bank levy is thus the result of the reforms initiated in the sphere of financial regulation rather than tax law. Financial and tax laws are different from each other in many respects, however, as it will be discussed below where the constitutional background for the introduction of financial taxes will be explored. In this paper, bank levies; one of the newly introduced financial taxes—are in the centre of interest. In this respect, the paper concerns detailed policy matters and justifi cation issues.