Financial Transaction Tax Statistics: 40 Billion USDs A Year In Britain

The idea of a financial transaction tax has begun doing the rounds lately. While many have been trying to size it right in terms of a percentage, here is what we know:

"In Britain, by contrast, a 0.5 percent tax on stock transactions raises about $40 billion a year. President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany recently announced plans to introduce a similar tax in the 27 nations of the European Community.

It is variously called a “transactions tax,” a “financial transactions tax,” a “security transaction excise tax” or a Tobin tax (after the Nobel Prize-winning economist James Tobin, who famously argued for its application to foreign exchange purchases in the late 1970s)."

What numbers are we talking, on wall street?

"Further, a sales tax on Wall Street of 0.5 percent could raise up to $175 billion in tax revenue a year, even if, by discouraging frequent trades, it cuts the total number of transactions in half."

That is a huge number. How do we digest that number? Well, the Government spent roughly some 700 Billion on getting Wall Street out of the 2008 financial mess - it can make that money back in 4 years.