The European Union held a summit over the weekend at which the assembled politicoes announced a variety of steps to increase regulation of European financial markets. But that isn’t all.
The EU communique also called for punitive action against tax havens. “A list of uncooperative jurisdictions and a toolbox of sanctions must be devised as soon as possible,” it said.
Ah, so now we see what is really important to European governments: squeezing more money out of their peoples.
As Cato’s Dan Mitchell has oft pointed out, competition among taxing jurisdictions is good for everyone other than governments. Tax havens, so-called, are an important tool for promoting such competition. Similar efforts are underway in the U.S. with efforts to tax the internet, for instance.
