Finance Ministers Oppose EU Budget Corporate Profits Levy Plan

Finance ministers from EU countries pushed back strongly Friday against a plan to raise money for the bloc’s budget by levying a charge based on a calculation of surplus corporate profits.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, proposed the 0.5% levy in June, characterizing it as a “statistical based own resource on company profits,” but finance ministers said at a summit that it would be regressive and difficult to implement.

It would be a “complicated scheme that is based on theoretical profits whether they are taxed or not,” said Bulgaria’s finance minister Assen Vassilev.

The commission proposal said ...