In matters of taxation, the presidential majority defends the status quo in this legislative election campaign. “No tax increase, whatever happens,” assures Gabriel Attal. The Prime Minister even promises to “enshrine this “budgetary golden rule” into law. “Pure demagoguery,” replies Claude Raynal, socialist president of the Senate Finance Committee. “It would backfire on the country. France manages to borrow on the markets because it is able to raise taxes,” he argues to Public Senate. The tax component of the Macronist project also proposes not to tax inheritances and donations up to €150,000 per child.
All about the 2024 legislative elections
On the left, the stated objective is a better distribution of wealth. To finance its ambitious program, the New Popular Front is considering increasing the tax burden on the wealthiest. “92% of French people will not see their tax system transformed,” promises rebel Éric Coquerel. Among the flagship measures of the program, the introduction of a wealth tax (ISF), “with a climate component”. This could bring in 15 billion euros, instead of “four, five” billion before its transformation by Emmanuel Macron into a real estate wealth tax (IFI), specifies Julia Cagé, one of the economic guarantors of the alliance on the left . The economist specifies that all goods will be taken into account in the calculation of this tax.
If you submit the value of the work tool and therefore of the companies to the ISF, all French capitalism will go away.
“Tax works of art, why not? But for the rest, it’s complicated. If you submit the value of the work tool and therefore of the companies to the ISF, all of French capitalism will disappear. Switzerland is an excellent example. Work tools are taxed in all its cantons and its business leaders will increasingly find refuge elsewhere, even in France sometimes,” warns tax lawyer Marc Bornhauser, interviewed by Capital.
The New Popular Front also plans a sharp increase in income tax for the wealthiest, with 14 brackets instead of the current five, as well as the establishment of an evolving CSG based on income (at this stage, the precise scales are not known).
On the side of the National Rally, tax promises are multiplying. With, at the head of the gondola, a reduction in VAT from 20.6% to 5.5% on “energy, fuel, fuel oil, gas and electricity”. A measure which would represent, according to the party’s figures, “a little over 12 billion over an entire year”. To apply it “from this summer”, the RN hopes to obtain a “temporary exemption” from the European Commission. But its spokesperson, Jean-Philippe Tanguy, recognized that it would be necessary to engage in a “balance of power” with the EU, which in principle prohibits this reduced rate which is contradictory with the objective of decarbonization of the economy. Jordan Bardella also takes up a measure defended by Marine Le Pen during the last presidential election: exempting those under 30 from income tax to support purchasing power.
Each of the proposals put forward by the RN obviously seeks to meet the expectations of a specific electoral target, without any overall logic.
“The program of the New Popular Front appears to be a carbon copy of a program that could have been developed by the left in the 1970s. As for the program of the RN, each of the proposals put forward obviously seeks to meet the expectations of a precise electoral target, without any overall logic,” analyzes economist Gilbert Cet. As for his colleague Elie Cohen, he warns about the apparent budgetary seriousness of Jordan Bardella, who intends to request an audit of the public accounts before implementing his program: “The experience of previous alternations teaches that if the audit allows us to ignore a number of unrealistic commitments, the fact remains that out of loyalty to the program, we always end up taking certain absurd measures. »
