The Anonymous Widower

Zopa And A European Transaction Tax

There has been a lot of talk and some would say hot air lately from politicians about a European Financial Transaction Tax. This morning I heard on the radio, that such a tax would reduce the value of pensions dramatically, as every time your pension provider bought or sold a share or bond, you’d pay tax on it. It would probably mean that annuity returns would drop significantly.

On the other hand, if you look at Zopa, which gives me similar returns to what I would expect from my pension or annuity provider, I would hope they are outside of a European Financial Transaction Tax.  Unless of course, the tax means that every time we make a transfer from our bank account, 0.01% goes to a central fund in the EU to bail out countries like Greece and Italy.

I would think that if any British Prime Minister allowed that, we would see riots, like we’ve never seen before.

So one of the advantages of an investment like Zopa, is that it should be outside any proposed European Financial Transaction Tax.  On the other hand, this just might get the EU to make companies like Zopa illegal or ensure that every lender was registered with some new bureaucracy. Remember that a civil servant’s first duty is to create more jobs for others of his ilk.

So my advice to those who want to have a safe place for their savings, might find Zopa and the other peer-to-peer lenders, a safer place than stocks and shares.

March 13, 2012 - Posted by AnonW | Finance, News | Tax, Zopa