This Thursday, the National Assembly adopted a tax on super-dividends from very large companies. The left-wing deputies continued to reshape the state budget, sometimes with the votes of the National Rally, in a Hemicycle abandoned by the government camp.
This additional tax concerns companies which have a turnover greater than or equal to one billion euros and which distribute dividends exceeding by 20% the average of dividends distributed over the previous five years. The fraction which exceeds this 20% is then taxed at 5%. According to the socialists, this tax targets “very large companies which have benefited from the succession of crises” and continued to “pay dividends at record levels”, citing in particular “BNP Paribas, Sanofi, Axa, LVMH, or Total”.
Additions of left-wing and RN votes
These socialist, rebellious, communist and environmentalist amendments were largely adopted (145 votes for, 37 against) thanks to the addition of the votes of the left and the RN and against those of the government camp.
Super-dividends “only serve to inflate financial bubbles and enrich a few,” defended LFI deputy Aurélien Le Coq during the debates. Macronist MP Pierre Cazeneuve deplored a measure likely to penalize shareholders and French companies in a globalized system. Companies “will pay more dividends to ensure the same return to their shareholders and therefore invest less”, producing “the exact opposite”, he also argued.
Unfavorable opinion of the rapporteur
Budget rapporteur Charles de Courson issued an unfavorable opinion, arguing that a similar measure adopted in 2017 had been canceled after in particular an appeal to the European Court of Justice: “These amendments are Euroincompatible, we can regret that” but “ if you vote for it, the same thing will happen again.
Our file on the 2025 budget
Earlier, the deputies adopted an LFI amendment aimed at making the payment of the research tax credit (CIR) conditional on a company being prohibited from relocating its activities for ten years. They also validated a series of tax measures encouraging agricultural businesses to adopt more sustainable operating systems.
