Apprenticeship, VAT, research tax credit, Dutreil pact… There are numerous savings avenues that will have an impact on businesses.
Michel Barnier in Issoire, October 4, 2024. (POOL / JEFF PACHOUD)
If the government has announced that only the largest companies – around 300 of them should be affected – will see their tax increase under the 2025 budget, the rest of the economic fabric will certainly be involved, by receiving less public aid than currently.
To find 20 billion additional revenues in 2025 and help reduce the public deficit from 6.1% of GDP to 5%, the corporate tax (IS) taxing profits will be increased “for a year or two”, according to Michel Barnier. A measure expected to bring in eight billion euros next year. The corporate tax rate has been gradually lowered from 33.3% to 25% since 2017, support for businesses being an economic priority of Emmanuel Macron.
According to Les Échos, the measure appearing in the draft budget which will be presented on Thursday would be equivalent to raising the corporate tax rate to 30% in 2025 for companies with a turnover of between one and three billion euros, and to 35 .25% beyond.
A decline would then be expected in 2026, to 27.5% and 30% respectively.
Around 300 large companies would be affected. Patrick Martin, the president of Medef which represents many of the companies concerned, is “ready to discuss” such a measure, but on condition that the government first “considers” a series of savings.
However, many deputies from the Macronist group Ensemble pour la République, notably Gérald Darmanin, are opposed to it. “Touching the IS would be a real economic error”, risking “weakening these companies internationally”, affirms to the
AFP
the deputy for Bas-Rhin Charles Sitzenstuhl.
Philippe Bruneau, president of the Cercle des Fiscalistes regularly consulted by public authorities, believes on the contrary that “if that’s all” that awaits companies, “it’s not very serious”. Because they should also have their share in the 40 billion euros in savings that will have to be made next year in public spending, in addition to the 20 billion in tax increases.
Fear about learning
“There will be efforts (to save money) on business aid”
a government source confirmed on Wednesday. In his general policy speech on Tuesday, the Prime Minister already indicated that he wanted to avoid “the windfall effects” that public funding of apprenticeships represents for some, the number of students of which has tripled since 2018.
“To attack learning would be a mistake”
worries the CPME, another representative employers’ organization.
Michel Barnier has at hand a veritable catalog of possible savings, thanks to the report on “business aid” ordered in November from the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) by former Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne. Divided into 380 devices,
they cost 88 billion euros in 2022
to the State and Social Security.
In addition to tax avenues such as the elimination or increase of the reduced VAT rate in certain sectors of activity, the IGF proposes to narrow the scope of beneficiaries of the Research Tax Credit (CIR), which supports R&D (research and development) expenditure. ).
She also suggests better targeting assets eligible for the Dutreil pact, which largely exempts transfers of family businesses from tax. “We are defending the Dutreil Pact tooth and nail” to safeguard the French economic fabric, warns Philippe Bruneau, while
recognizing certain abuses by beneficiaries
.
“Opposition farouche”
The CPME also announces a “fierce opposition to (…) a questioning of the reductions in charges”.
“That would be a little more annoying” for businesses, confirms Philippe Bruneau.
However, on Friday the Minister of Labor seemed to move in this direction by discussing with the social partners the report by economists Antoine Bozio and Étienne Wasmer, made public the day before: to prevent employees from being confined to the minimum wage, it proposes
a new distribution of reductions in social security contributions granted to companies on the lowest salaries.
But where the authors reason on a constant cost basis (these reductions represent some 75 billion annual public money per year), Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet indicated that she was aiming with this measure for a “return objective” of some 5 billion euros per year. for three years, according to union sources.
Companies received “100 billion” of public money “between the Covid crisis and that of inflation”, recalls the government source, as if to ward off possible protests.
