Creation of the financial transaction tax (0.2% on share purchases)

Article 5 of the amending finance act of 14 March 2012 creates a tax on purchases of shares in listed French companies with a market capitalisation above one billion euros, at a rate of 0.1% of the purchase price. The same article creates a tax on cancelled or modified orders in high-frequency trading and a 0.01% tax on purchases of credit default swaps on an EU Member State. Before its entry into force on 1 August 2012, the second amending finance act for 2012 (Article 7) raised the rate of the share purchase tax to 0.2%.