In an interview with “Echos”, this Sunday, October 13, the president of the centrist group in the Assembly announces that he will table amendments to index the smallest pensions to inflation from January 1.
If the Macronists scream against tax increases, the Modem on the other hand attacks the draft budget on its left, with a series of shocking proposals: maintain the indexation of small pensions, narrow down several niches from which businesses and households benefit, without forgetting an expansion of the real estate wealth tax. In an interview with Echosthis Sunday, October 13, Marc Fesneau, the president of the Democratic group in the Assembly (i.e. 34 deputies, mainly Modem, in principle allies of the Macronists), announces that he will table amendments to index the most small pensions from January 1, while the Barnier government wants to postpone indexation to July 1 for all pensions. His reservations about the draft budget tabled Thursday do not stop there. The Modem also wants to increase the “flat tax”, this reduction for financial income introduced by Emmanuel Macron upon his election, and to retarget the research tax credit, one of the main tax niches for companies, spared until now by the increase fiscal budget. A few more hiccups within the LR-Ensemble alliance on the finance bill for 2025, which arrives this Wednesday in the Assembly Finance Committee.
A sign that the former presidential majority is taking on a bit of water, Marc Fesneau begins with a dig at his former macronie minister colleagues. He “is surprised” reviews “formulated by former members of the government and parties that make up the current coalition”while “the observed slippage should encourage us all to be modest, not to give up and to propose credible and responsible solutions.” So much for the virulent attacks carried out in recent days by Gabriel Attal and Gérald Darmanin against the tax increases in Michel Barnier’s budget. In an interview with JDD this Sunday, the president of Modem François Bayrou is at it again. “It would be strange for the former majority to criticize the new government for the effort to be made to correct a record which is in reality its own.”
The tax credit is in the viewfinder
Above all, Marc Fesneau takes a new step in unraveling the pillars of macronism, by announcing that he wants, during the parliamentary debate, to reduce several niches from which businesses benefit. First he says he has “a doubt about the return of 8 billion euros expected from the surcharge on 400 large companies”. In other words, he considers it insufficient or its target too limited. Furthermore, he announces that he wants “go further on the single flat tax, the taxation of the transfer of life insurance contracts and the taxation of capital gains from intra-group transfers (“Copé niche”). Obviously the exceptional and temporary tax on the wealthiest, which will only affect 24,300 households, is not enough.
A few other niches including in the sights of the Modem. “We also have to look at the research tax credit (CIR), which is a very nice tool but which is very expensive and which we can undoubtedly retarget a little. This must also be done for all tax niches. We will also make a certain number of proposals on housing taxation.” And to quote “a reform of real estate capital gains, whose system of exemptions, today, leads to the withholding of property while many of our fellow citizens are unable to find housing.” An allusion to the reduction in the taxation of these capital gains depending on the holding period.
Modem hopes to build majorities with the left
It even breaks a taboo of the former presidential majority: a partial restoration of the ISF on non-real estate assets. “We wish to launch a parliamentary debate on the scope of the Real Estate Wealth Tax, which replaced the ISF in 2018. This was our position from 2017: we must not return to the ISF, but this IFI must be improved so as to no longer be a tax on real estate wealth, but on unproductive wealth, by integrating assets which have a limited impact on the productive economy.
Marc Fesneau also hopes to find majorities on his proposals with the support of the left. “We have been talking about tax justice for a long time. So I think we can find points of convergence on the revenue side. On the condition that everyone does not remain stuck to their positions, otherwise we will showcase our parliamentary impotence. Let’s find convergence but while keeping the proposed trajectory and aiming for tax efficiency.” As for the increase in the tax on electricity, he approves it without reservation, just like the additional cut of 5 billion on the credits of the ministries that the government is considering. With a proposal from Modem, reduce professional training expenses. The 49.3? Inevitable on the expense part, he regrets.
