This paper reviews the use of ad valorem taxes on cash withdrawals and other debits–in some cases also credits—to accounts in banks and other financial institutions. Since this type of tax on financial transactions (FTT for short) became popular in late nineties, they have generated great interest among policy makers and tax analysts and resulted in a sizable body of literature, which is reviewed below.2 Ten years of FTTs applied, albeit with discontinuities, over 15 countries, provide a vivid experience of the hard choices faced by tax policy authorities and the compromises at which they arrive.
Centro de Cidadania Fiscal
