Does a CTL require international consensus? What would it look like in the UK?
A crucial distinction is that a country can unilaterally apply a transaction levy to their currency, meaning it does not require global or regional consensus. This levy would then apply to all transactions of that currency worldwide, and not the transactions of all currencies in that particular country. In the UK context, a CTL on sterling currency transactions could be implemented through the introduction of a ‘Sterling Stamp Duty’ applied to all currency transactions involving Sterling, wherever in the world they took place. At a rate of 0.005% it would raise in the region of US$5 billion a year. This is a major source of untapped revenue which could be used to boost development spending or contribute to the escalating costs of climate change.
