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Taxes and Levies
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Taxes and Levies
Posted by
mikael
at
2005-08-24 11:50 PM
The CTT is left without mention in the statement from the Quadripartite group, see http://www.cttcampaigns.info/documents/brazil/050812-declaration-septembre2005-ENG.pdf/view
Also noteworthy is that the word 'taxes' has disappeared altogether from the vocabulary of the quadripartite group; it has been replaced by
'levies'.
Is not the difference between 'tax' and 'levy' more than phonetical, are these not different concepts?
In my country (Finland) the majority of the people are of the opinion that taxes on both income and capital are economically viable, socially desirable and politically possible.(This has been established by means of opinion polls.) In Finland and other Nordic or European welfare states , 'taxes' have often been used by the governments as means to intervene into the economic and social structure in order achieve greater economical stability and social justice.
James Tobin, too, looked upon the CTT primarily
as a measure against financial instability, but it would also help to guarantee that at least part of the financial power would remain with the national governments.
'Levies', on the other hand, I do not understand as having necessarily anything to do with social or economic structures, financial stability or
social justice. A levy could be be introduced purely in order to raise the money for certain purpose. A positive (?) example would be a levy on
alcohol in order to finance investments in the treatment of alcoholics. A dubious example would be a levy on air tickets as a means to finance the
millennium development goals. Or, maybe just to alleviate the bad conscience of the air passengers.
- Mikael Böök
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