Tax Foundation Europe

16/10/2026

💶 Fourteen countries in Europe—Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United Kingdom—currently levy a type of financial transaction tax.

FTTs directly increase the cost of raising equity capital to finance business investment. Due to the strong negative response of transaction volumes and share prices to higher transaction costs, they frequently fail to achieve their revenue goals.

Explore the data: https://hubs.ly/Q04BpcM90

15/10/2026

Join us for our second annual conference and gala on Monday, 27 September 2027 in Paris, France!

Leading experts will explore:
· How Elections Will Shape French Tax Policy (in French)
· The Latest on EU Tax Policy
· Investment and Competition in an Era of Trade Wars

Interested in attending? Complete the interest form: https://hubs.ly/Q04BcV9x0

14/10/2026

Closing the EU’s value-added tax (VAT) actionable policy gap could yield €773 billion in government revenue—four times the EU’s 2026 budget.

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Closing the EU's value-added tax (VAT) actionable policy gap could yield billions in additional government revenue for member states.

13/10/2026

Since digital services taxes generate little revenue, place the cost on European consumers and not on large digital companies as intended, and risk escalating trade disputes, policymakers should rethink their strategy. Read more:

Since digital services taxes generate little revenue, place the cost on European consumers and not on large digital companies as intended, and risk escalating trade disputes, policymakers should rethink their strategy.

12/10/2026

Poland taxes its individual business owners through alternative regimes and a series of thresholds, several of them sharp notches that imply significant tax costs for businesses crossing them.

Read more: https://hubs.ly/Q04zMlNL0

09/10/2026

Who really pays for European welfare states? Many assume the answer is obvious: high-income earners contribute while low-income earners benefit. However, that assumption is only partly true, and often misleading.

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The assumption that high-income earners contribute to the European welfare state while low-income earners benefit is only partly true.

08/10/2026

The flawed design of windfall profits taxes has created problems in countries that implemented them.

Explore the data: https://hubs.ly/Q04z97xX0

07/10/2026

Retail prices make poor targets for excise tax policy, often reflecting factors that have little to do with the underlying reasons for which an excise tax is levied in the first place. Unfortunately, the World Health Organization (WHO) has a growing preference for using tax share of retail price (tax incidence) as a primary policy target.

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To***co excise taxes should not be designed using tax incidence as a primary policy target, as the World Health Organization recommends.

06/10/2026

High property taxes levied not only on land but also on buildings and structures can discourage investment in infrastructure, which businesses would have to pay additional tax on.

Explore the data: https://hubs.ly/Q04zlysX0

05/10/2026

In recent years, European Union countries have experienced high inflation—driven by supply factors, demand, and imported inflation—that has significantly altered the economic landscape. This shift from low to high prices has profound implications, especially from a fiscal perspective.

Our research focuses on the inflationary environment’s fiscal consequences. Read more: https://hubs.ly/Q04z3QHC0