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 The countries involved are struggling to agree the scope of the tax,
designed to make banks pay for the public aid they received in the
2007-09 financial crisis, and how it will be applied before a Dec.
31 deadline for a deal.
Finance ministers are due to discuss the tax on Friday in Brussels.
Failure to get a deal by the year-end deadline would be a political
embarrassment for France and Germany, the tax's main backers from
the start.
The countries planning to apply the tax are divided between those
wanting a levy on companies shares based on where the firm is based,
and those wanting it applied according to where the bank dealing in
the shares is based, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin said in a
contribution published in Les Echos newspaper in France and
Handelsblatt in Germany.
Some smaller countries have been concerned that a levy only based on
where a company is based would yield little revenue since they
generally have fewer listed firms.
Sapin said the tax should apply to listed companies based in the 11
countries but that the revenues received should go to the country
hosting the bank that handled the transaction.
"Thus, in the case of a share in a French company bought by a
Portuguese bank, the revenue would go to Portugal," Sapin wrote,
describing his proposal as a "compromise".
"If the same share were bought by a French bank or a bank residing
outside of the 11 countries (applying the tax), the revenue would go
to France," he added.
Turning to the equally tricky issue of what financial derivatives to
cover, Sapin said all credit default swaps that are not handled by
clearing houses should be targeted from the get-go.
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In Berlin, a spokesman for German Finance Minister Wolfgang
Schaeuble said that the ministries of both countries were working
closely together in the matter of shaping the financial transaction
tax.
"Germany is always open to compromises. It remains our goal to
combine a preferably broad tax base with low tax rates," the
spokesman said.
Separately, Les Echos reported that the French government was
considering applying a 20 percent residency tax on second homes in
particularly tight housing markets.
(Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Additional reporting by Matthias
Sobolewski in Berlin; Editing by Andrew Callus)
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