A survey of EU citizens to explore public attitudes toward taxation found that close to half (48%) would opt for raising taxes on alcohol and tobacco as their first port of call, if additional revenue were needed to fund public services.
Some 33% would raise taxes on investment income in such a situation, while 28% said that they would raise taxes on businesses, 14% would opt for environmental taxes, and 13% would tax inheritance, the Eurobarometer study found.
Other possible taxes cited included taxes on transportation (5%), VAT (5%), wages (5%) and housing (4%).
Sustainability and fairness
The survey also found that close to six in ten (59%) of respondents support using taxes to discourage the usage or consumption of environmentally harmful goods and polluting energy sources, while just over half (53%) support taxing air travel at the same rate as other transport modes.
When asked whether they believe people in their countries pay taxes in proportion to their income and wealth, a fifth of respondents (20%) said that this happens to ‘a large extent’, while 51% believe it is done ‘to some extent’.
Close to a quarter (24%) answered ‘not at all’ when asked whether taxes in their country are collected in proportion to income and wealth.
Multinational companies
The study also found strong agreement (80%) among respondents that large multinational companies should be required to pay a minimum amount of tax in every country in which they operate, a position that garnered strong support in every EU member state.
When asked what actions they believed the EU should prioritise with regard to taxation, more than half (54%) said the bloc should do more to combat tax avoidance and evasion, with 25% saying it should prevent double taxes between countries, 23% answering it should solve tax disagreements among countries, and 19% answering that taxation measures should be used to support a green economy. Read more here.
