- The enormous state expenditure linked to the crisis raises the question of finding new revenue.
- Some elected leftists and economists are asking for a return of the ISF, which was abolished in 2018.
- But the government does not intend to return to this campaign promise for the moment.
The more time passes, the more the bill goes up. While the date for the end of confinement is still unknown, many companies have had to lay off workers. According to the last count available, this Thursday, this concerned 4 million people. The State fully compensating for the cost borne by businesses (84% of net salary), this represents a potential expenditure of 11 billion euros over three months for public finances. To this already heavy bill could be added two other elements: cancellation of charges (social security contributions) for companies in great difficulty, and a possible intervention of the State to pay loans if the debtor defaults. As a reminder, the government has promised to guarantee up to 300 billion euros in business loans.
In view of these colossal expenses, voices are raised to demand the establishment of exceptional revenues. This Wednesday, the boss of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, estimated that the health crisis caused by the epidemic of coronavirus raised the question of the participation of the "richest" in "the collective effort". This effort could be made "through the ISF or another tax system," added the unionist on France Info.
Reinstatement not on the agenda
Here is the solidarity tax on wealth. Suppressed by Emmanuel Macron in 2018, as he had promised during his campaign, it had brought in 4.2 billion euros in its last year of existence. It has since been replaced by the IFI (property wealth tax), which brought in 2.1 billion euros in 2019. To justify its disappearance, the executive had put forward the fact that the ISF could act as a foil and divert the wealthy from France. However, the economic efficiency of its removal remains very difficult to prove, as the economic evaluation committee specially set up last year noted.
The economic context being exceptional, the government could consider reinstating this levy. But this does not seem to be on the agenda. “There will be a time for the tax debate. But (…) we have not come to the time when we have to look at the tax system, which will pay (…) What matters is that the State unites to support our entrepreneurs. We will then see what adjustments we need to make in terms of public finances, ”explained Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of Economy, on Wednesday. In other words, the executive does not want to hurry on this highly symbolic file.
"The government finds itself doing the quest"
Instead, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin, put forward an original idea. "Many individuals or companies ask us how to participate and help us," he explained in an interview with Le Figaro . All those who wish will be able to do so soon, via a donation platform that we will put online. ” A proposal that angered the left opposition: “Too much is too much. National solidarity is tax ”reacted in particular Julien Bayou, national secretary of EELV, on Twitter.
"This government has given a lot of gifts to the wealthy hoping that runoff will work, but it is not. Now he finds himself doing the quest, counting on good will, which I find rather curious, ”said Dany Lang, an economist member of the Baffled Economists and Research Professor at the Sorbonne Paris-Nord University. According to him, "we must restore, at least temporarily, the ISF. It is an additional recipe and it is symbolically important. We should also think about new tax brackets, in order to improve progressiveness [the higher the income, the higher the tax rate] ».
Historically, this would not be a novelty. In the United States, for example, the maximum income tax rate was 70% (income over $ 460,000 was taxed at this rate) until the early 1980s. In France, the rate maximum marginal was 65% in 1983, before gradually decreasing to 45% today.
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- Emmanuel Macron
- Containment
- Coronavirus
- Economy
- Isf