The Government has been too optimistic about the Tobin Tax. This is supported by the technicians of the Senate, who consider it difficult to calculate precisely the revenue deriving from the new tax on financial transactions. The risks of avoidance are too high, not to mention the "tax competition" that could come from other EU countries.
"The assumption of the increased revenue as a constant figure over time - reads the reading note on the Stability Bill - does not seem to take into account the possibility that the provision in question changes the behavior of investors who, in order to evade payment of the tax, they could resort to forms of interposition, availing themselves of natural or legal persons not resident in Italy".
Furthermore, the "misalignment with respect to other regimes operating within the EU" is not considered. While waiting for a common proposal, "there could be phenomena of tax competition from those EU countries which have not yet introduced the tax in question or have more favorable regimes, therefore to the detriment of transactions in the national financial markets, with a crowding-out effect especially in the early years (in which the reaction of investors could be clearer) and in any case until there is harmonized taxation at the Community level”.
