The European Commission (EC) has published two new studies on taxation focusing on wealth taxes and effective tax rates across the 28 members states.

Thereview of taxes on wealth and transfers of Wealth report studies three main categories of wealth-related taxes in the 28 member states, namely inheritance and gift taxes; real estate and land taxation; and taxes on net wealth.

The report reveals that real estate and land taxes are the only significant source of wealth tax income which raised on average 2.59% of total tax revenue. In the UK, real estate and land taxes raised 5.7% of total tax revenue, being the third highest in the group, with France at the top raising 6.2% of total tax revenue.

In contrast, while most member states tax inheritances and real estate, in practice, the design of inheritance and gift taxes, with large exemptions for family members, means that such taxes are not comprehensively applied and generally do not contribute much to total tax revenue, raising only 0.39% of total tax revenue. The study showed that taxes on net wealth are rare and contribute only 0.36% of total tax revenue.

The Cross-country review of Taxes on Wealth and Transfers of Wealth  report is available at http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/common/publications/studies/2014_eu_wealth_tax_project_finale_report.pdf

The Effective tax rates in an enlarged European Union report extends the scope of the calculation of effective tax rates (ETRs) conducted under the study on effective levels of company taxation within an enlarged EU. The 3,000 page report presents estimates of the effective tax rates on investment in the EU member states, and also include Turkey, Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Japan and the United States and is available at http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/resources/documents/common/publications/studies/final_report_2014_taxud_2013_cc_120.pdf