Robin Hood Tax

The Church of Scotland is a member of the Robin Hood Tax campaign.

This campaign calls for a tiny charge of 0.05% on financial transactions such as stocks, bonds, foreign currency and derivatives. It is estimated that if it was introduced by countries across the world it could raise an extra £250billion per year, which could help bolster public services, increase aid to developing countries or help to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Last Monday I, along with representatives of about 70 other organisations, wrote to the Prime Minister ahead of the G20 meeting urging him to consider signing up.

So far the UK Government position has been to oppose the idea of a financial transaction tax, but the French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are both in favour of it. We hope that the G20 meeting will be a crucial turning point and that if the UK Government gets behind it, it will sooner become a reality.

 

You can read a comment about how the G20 meeting went on Robin's blog.