The Treasury Ministry clears part of the fog surrounding the Tobin Tax and reassures some ambiguous rules, guaranteeing that the most favorable interpretation for taxpayers prevails.
In particular, to arouse doubts were the transition points from one bracket to another in relation to the tax on derivatives on indices. The minimum value must be higher than the indicated thresholds: for example, for regulated markets, the tax is 0,15 euros for values from 50 to 100 thousand euros (fourth bracket) and 0,75 euros for those from 100.001 to 500 thousand euro (fifth bracket). Both the buyer and the seller are subject to taxation, both in intraday and overnight operations.
However, it should be remembered that the system changes for transactions in actions, on which a tax of 0,10% is paid, always to be applied to the value of the transaction. Furthermore, in these cases, the tax is charged only to the buyer and only to overnight transactions.
The Treasury has also resolved the doubts relating to the swap contracts, specifying that, if a basket of indices or shares is exchanged, the contracts will have to be broken down to evaluate on which positions it is mandatory to pay the Tobin Tax and on which ones the exemption is instead envisaged. The criterion is as follows: only Italian derivatives and equity securities issued by companies with a capitalization of more than 500 million euros are subject to the tax on financial transactions.
If doubts remain in the individual contracts on the positions to be taxed, the Tobin is paid on the parts that are clearly subject to tax, then the principle of "prevalence" is applied for the parts of the contract in which doubts remain or on which the operator is unable to proceed with decomposition.
