RICOS QUE PAGUEM A CRISE

Para apagar de imediato a dívida pública francesa, o economista Jaques Delpla propôs publicamente a aplicação de um imposto cego de 17% sobre a totalidade do património dos franceses acima de 30 mil euros.

O tema chegou a ser debatido na Toulouse School of Economics e a medida não foi esquecida no FMI.  

Na última edição da publicação do FMI, "Fiscal Monitor", para restaurar a sustentabilidade das dívidas públicas, sugere-se a aplicação extraordinária de um imposto de 10% sobre a riqueza privada, a aplicar de uma só vez. Com este imposto, tendo como base uma amostra de 15 países da zona euro, a dívida pública regressaria a valores de finais de 2007. A aplicação deste imposto extraordinário deveria ser feita de surpresa e rapidamente de modo a evitar a fuga de capitais. Leia o texto na sua versão original: 

Box 6. A One-Off Capital Levy? 

The sharp deterioration of the public finances in many countries has revived interest in a "capital levy" - a one-off tax on private wealth - as an exceptional measure to restore debt sustainbility.1 The appeal is that such a tax, if it is implemented before avoidance is possible there is a belief that it will never be repeated, does not distort behavior (and may be seen by some as fair). There have been illustrious supporters, including Pigou, Ricardo, Shumpeter, and - until be changed his mind - Keynes. The conditions for success are strong, but also need to be weighed against the risks of the alternatives, which include repudiating public debt or inflating it away (these, in turn, are a particular form of wealth tax - on bondholders - that also fall on non residents). 
There is a surprisingly large amount of experience to draw on, as such levies were widely adopted in Europe after World War I and in Germany and Japan after World War II. Reviewed in Eichengreen (1990), this experience suggests that more notable than any loss of credibility was a simple failure to achieve debt reduction, largely because avoidance and capital flight - in turn spurring inflation. 
The tax rates needed to bring down public debt to precrisis levels, moreover, are sizabe: reducing debt ratios to end-2007 levels would require (for a sample of 15 euro area countries) a tax rate about 10 percent on households with positive net wealth.

(pág. 49, de "Fiscal Monitor" Outubro 2013)

Ligações: Fiscal Monitor - Taxing Times [IMF]; Como pagar a dívida pública; Déficit : le curieux cadeau que veut faire Bruxelles aux pays vertueux [SFR]; Resgate à custa das poupanças.