BRITISH PRIME minister Gordon Brown last night claimed German support for an initiative to tax bankers’ bonuses. It followed backing for such a plan from French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

With Paris expected as early as today to follow Britain’s move to impose a 50 per cent tax on bonuses higher than £25,000 sterling, with an equivalent tax on bonuses above €27,000, Mr Brown’s spokesman said there was clear political support from Germany for a wider plan to rein in bonuses in the financial sector.

Support for special taxation on bonuses emerged as Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street investment banking titan, unveiled plans to eliminate cash bonuses for its top 30 executives this year and to give shareholders an opportunity to vote on its remuneration policies.

“Its a very clear message coming out of chancellor Merkel’s team about their political support for what Britain and France have done in this respect,” Mr Brown’s spokesman told reporters at the EU summit in Brussels.

“They believe that this kind of approach is the right way to move forward in the banking sector. They are very supportive politically of what this initiative is about.”

Mr Brown’s remarks follow a meeting yesterday between the British leader and Mr Sarkozy at which they sought to draw a line under their differences over the appointment of French nominee Michel Barnier to the internal markets portfolio in the incoming European Commission.

“They are both completely aligned on the importance of that sort of scheme to ensure that going forward we don’t repeat the same mistakes of the past and move towards an era of more responsible banking,” Mr Brown’s spokesman said.

While German chancellor Angela Merkel said the idea of a one-off tax on bonuses was “charming” and one which may produce a “learning effect”, she said a transaction tax in financial markets would be a more sustainable solution to the requirement of institutions to shoulder more of the risk in markets.

“The Germans always said that we want the banks and the people who work in these banks to share the burden resulting from this crisis. We should not place the burden squarely on the taxpayers’ shoulders,” she told reporters.

Mr Brown, in a letter to EU leaders circulated before they converged on Brussels, said the actions of European governments to support ailing banks had placed heavy burdens on taxpayers.

“Despite the fact that, both preceding the crisis and again now, banks have made very large profits, and some of their employees have received bonuses equal to many multiples of average earnings in our countries,” he said.

“The rapid return to profitability of the sector, at a time when overall economic and financial conditions remain difficult, highlights some of the structural concerns about the sector which we need to address – while the benefits of success are reaped by the few, the costs of failure are borne by the many.

“We must therefore act to redress the balance of risks, rewards and responsibility between society and the financial sector.”