“Bercy’s crazy project”, we can read in large letters on the headline of L’Opinion. The daily reveals in its January 10 edition the reflection outlined by the Minister of the Economy and the Minister of Public Accounts to the socialists, supporters of fiscal justice. The measure could contribute, with other concessions, to securing a non-censorship agreement with part of the left. During one of the political consultations on the reorientation of the finance bill, the minister in charge of the budget Amélie de Montchalin raised the possibility of taxation on assets, instead of the differential contribution on income.
A temporary differential contribution on revenues in the initial text of the budget
The finance bill, in its current version, provides for a “temporary and exceptional” contribution from tax households with the highest incomes (250,000 euros annually for a single person). Scheduled to last three years, this contribution would aim to ensure a minimum tax rate for these households of at least 20%. The yield from this measure, supposed to compensate for the shortfall generated by certain tax arrangements widely used by the wealthiest taxpayers, was expected to reach 2 billion euros per year. However, this provision should not see the light of day with the extensions of parliamentary discussions in January, due to the principle of non-retroactivity in tax matters.
Bercy is now instead studying the solution of taxing the assets of these largest taxpayers. Communist MP Nicolas Sansu, quoted by the daily L’Opinion, speaks of a “Zucman tax, in miniature format”. The name here refers to a proposal by French economist Gabriel Zucman, who imagined a global tax on billionaires. It would consist of taxing the fraction of assets exceeding one billion euros at a rate of 2%. The left in the National Assembly managed to insert a tax with a similar mechanism on October 25, but the provision was swept away like all of their modifications, with the rejection of the revenue part of the budget.
“It’s more of an anti-optimization system,” analyzes the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee
A stakeholder in the negotiations, the president of the Senate Finance Committee, the socialist Claude Raynal, however tempers this way of presenting things. “Technically, we don’t have the full outline. We are on a few principles. I would say that it is rather an anti-tax optimization system that is being presented to us,” specifies the senator from Haute-Garonne.
The boss of the socialist senators, Patrick Kanner, agrees and also distances himself from the term Zucman tax. “It’s an overinterpretation. We didn’t go into detail like that,” corrects the senator from the North.
One, like the other, confirms, however, that the government is indeed working on a new tax system, which takes time, given the technicality of the subject. The provision must comply with European Union tax law. Second imperative, it must also be able to be inserted into the text under debate in the Senate. However, the revenue aspect has already been the subject of a vote in the Senate. The question of taxation of higher incomes will therefore only be able to come back at the time of the joint committee, provided that the provision is sufficiently close to the first contribution. The funnel rule narrows the field of possibilities for modifications, when the parliamentary shuttle progresses. The new contribution must therefore have a “direct link” with the old one, otherwise it will be necessary to go through another bill.
-“The system was being analyzed and being considered, brought back to the Prime Minister to find out if it was going in this direction,” Claude Raynal also underlines. The response is not expected before Tuesday. “Today, we do not yet have any arbitrations. We are in the time of discussion. The main directions will be given by the Prime Minister during the general policy declaration,” Sophie Primas, the government spokesperson, announced this Friday.
“The problem is the negotiations on pensions,” retorts François Patriat
The idea of a contribution based on assets seems at first glance to be relatively well received in the central bloc, which nevertheless abolished the solidarity tax on wealth (ISF), replacing it with a tax on “real estate wealth” alone, one of his major tax reforms of 2017. “Already in the discussions with Michel Barnier, we said that we were open to tax justice measures […] We are ready to compromise, we are ready for tax measures. I’m just saying, let’s not abandon savings either,” warned Renaissance MP and former Budget Minister Thomas Cazenave this morning on TF1.
“It’s not a real problem, it was acquired with Michel Barnier,” François Patriat, the boss of the Macronist senators, also assures us. “The problem is the negotiations on pensions,” he adds.
The right is very cautious after the announcement of this new tax proposal
On the right, several parliamentarians ask to see the device once completed, before judging. But some remain on their guard. “If it’s a surcharge, for one year, for assets of more than 100 million euros, I want to look carefully. If it’s more than a million euros, it’s starting to do well,” replies a member of the senatorial right. Olivier Paccaud (related to LR) calls for caution, while ensuring that there are “no taboos” on tax fairness. “If it’s about preventing optimization, why not. But we have known for a long time the vices of overtaxation of assets. These are always politically very symbolic measures but whose economic effectiveness is very relative. This can have frankly negative consequences when it results in scaring away certain taxpayers with rich assets. »
“In fact, it’s a return of the ISF,” asks LR senator Dominique de Legge. The senator from Ille-et-Vilaine instead pleads for taxation of “unproductive wealth”. Since last year, the senatorial majority has had yachts and even cryptocurrencies in its sights, an “unproductive fortune” that it wants to put to use.
