Taxes of local elected officials: why the Senate ignited

Gerald Darmanin assured Tuesday that he would support the new Senate amendment on the taxation of local elected officials. A tweet from the Minister of Public Accounts led to a suspension of proceedings in the Senate late last week.

After the yellow vests, the red armchairs? Not for this time. The mini-slingshot that took place at the end of last week in the Senate is over.

Senators have written a corrected version of the amendment on the taxation of local elected officials that the government will not oppose. The first version of the text had been vilified by Gérald Darmanin on Twitter Friday. The post of the Minister of Public Accounts led to a three-day suspension until Monday.

On the initiative of @lesRepublicains the Senate has just voted a 125% increase in the tax deduction of elected officials, which amounts to exonerating them from tax up to 1500 € / month on their allowances! I will oppose it obviously in second reading at the @ AssembleeNat. Cc @olivierdussopt

First, a few clarifications on the initial amendment

Did the Senators want to give themselves a Christmas present in advance?

No. The first text did not concern all elected officials, as the message of Gerald Darmanin could let think but only local elected representatives, excluding parliamentarians.

Up to € 1,500 tax exemption each month?

No. It is the maximum amount of the allowances of function that the local elected officials could deduct from their declaration of income which was raised by the Senate to the amount of 1 500 € per month. With the previous taxation, these allowances were not taxable. With the deduction at source, they pass in the salary category, thus adding to the other incomes of the mayor. The crux of the problem for Charles Guené. "The allowance of office does not correspond to a salary, but to the counterpart of the subjections imposed by the function and the absence of refund of a large part of the expenses engaged" , hammered the senator LR at the origin of the 'amendment. Costs incurred by the mayors of smaller municipalities that do not have services.

What was wrong

The amendment, the spirit of which was to preserve the wasteful resources of mayors of municipalities with less than 1,000 inhabitants, was unclear. Thus, all local elected officials could have claimed: mayors of large cities, departmental and regional advisers.

The new amendment

Called No. I-238 rect., It was unanimously approved by the Conference of Presidents (the meeting of the presidents of Senate groups) after the exchange between Gérard Larcher, Chief Tenant of Luxembourg and Prime Minister Édouard Philippe. "In the second deliberation that the Senate will ask, will the government be in favor" of improving the tax incentive "from € 1,500 of abatement? The answer is yes, " Gérald Darmanin said Tuesday. The new amendment makes it clear that only mayors of municipalities with fewer than 1,000 inhabitants are concerned.

Incident ended for the Senate which was able to look at other amendments, including those removing the tax benefits for people making available free of charge to housing associations for homeless people.