Higher taxes on the highest incomes are needed to redistribute wealth and tackle soaring inequality, and increase public revenues and spending. The ETUC supports the introduction of an EU-wide Financial Transactions Tax (FTT) and a common corporate tax of at least 25%.

In recent years, shocking levels of tax evasion and fraud, tax avoidance, and tax competition through preferential tax rates for international companies have been uncovered across Europe. They lead to a loss of public funds and general disillusionment with unfair policies that penalise the poor while offering massive benefits to the very rich. These practices must end, and the criminal perpetrators punished.