Financial Transaction Tax: Pan-European Market for Master-Feeder Structures – or Part of It – Smothered?

The European Commission (EC) published a revised version of the proposal for a common system for the levy of a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) on 14 February 2013. The FTT is a tax imposed on financial institutions handling for transactions in financial instruments. The proposal lacks specific provisions master-feeder structures as referred to in the UCITS Directive. As yet little is known about the consequences of a lack of such provisions. This contribution describes the author’s research into whether the proposal sufficiently takes account of the objectives of the UCITS Directive. It shows the EC’s proposal to have insufficiently considered master-feeder structures. This, hence, distorts the competition between these structures. The proposal should be adapted in places to eliminate or reduce such distortion