Future EU funding: A case of lump-sum tax

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the EU financing reform, where the lump-sum tax is considered as an alternative source of revenue. The purpose of this study stems out of the current debate related to the EU budget reform, where tax-based own-resources are required to replace the current system of own resources of the EU budget. The novelty of this research arises from the evaluation of a hypothetical EU lump-sum tax as a future replacement of GNI and VAT-based EU budget own sources. The aim of this paper is to analyze the potential of a lump-sum tax as a source of future EU funding. We consider lump-sum tax as an EU per capita charge applicable to all citizens of 28 EU member states. In order to assess the lump-sum tax potential we simulate five different lump-sum tax rates and compare the obtained yield to current EU own resources. The results of the research show that a charge per capita in the EU does not have the capacity to fully replace GNI or VAT-based EU own resources. Therefore, we consider the EU per capita charge as a form of complementary source to fund the EU own budget, with no real potential to fully replace the current EU own resources.