The Ministry of Economy has published the list, which is available on the Treasury website, of companies listed on the Milan Stock Exchange which will be exempt from the Tobin Tax, the tax on financial transactions which applies to transfers of ownership of shares and other equity financial instruments. Taxation, as it turns out, will only concern 26% of the securities listed on the Italian Stock Exchange, or 76 out of 295 listed companies, those with capitalization greater than 500 million.
The Government's provision also clarifies the type of operations on which the Tobin Tax will affect. Algorithmic trading used in market making and smart order routing algorithms are excluded, as they are not "high-frequency", only those operations will be taxed generated by computer algorithms that automatically determine order decisions with an interval of no more than half a second, and only if the security remains in the portfolio at the end of the day.
Surprisingly, the decree also includes the exclusion from taxation of Sicavs, ie investment companies with variable capital. The Tobin Tax amount will be 0,2% of the transaction value.
