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As deposit tax idea leaps to Spain (or was it already there?), Cyprus eyes social security accounts (UPDATED AND BUMPED)

UPDATE: Spain’s Budget Minister is insisting that the tax on deposits is not new for his country. How that is supposed to make his people feel better is beyond me (4-Traders [1]).

Overnight, the “unique” Cyprus became…no longer unique (Zero Hedge [2]):

Spain, it would appear, has changed constitutional rules to enable a so-called ‘moderate’ levy on deposits – as under previous Spanish law this was prohibited. For now, they claim the ‘levy’ will be “not much higher than 0%” and is mainly aimed at regions in Spain that have “made no effort to collect taxes” based on new revenue expectations.

In other words, the Spanish deposit tax will not only skim savers, but it will be aimed at regions Madrid thinks are not hitting up their own taxpayers enough.

Just when we thought American voters had lost the ability to understand how frightening unlimited government can be, Europe appears determined to remind them (and everyone else).

Meanwhile, Cyprus – having rejected the deposit tax demanded and then abandoned by their creditors in Brussels – is looking for Plan B. Among the options includes “making use of about 5 billion euros in reserved held by Cyprus’s social security funds” (Ekathimerini [3]). Oh yes, that’s sure to make Cypriots happy.

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