"At least a quarter" of the 100 billion euros planned to revive the French economy in the context of the health crisis will benefit SMEs and very small businesses, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Wednesday. The stimulus plan, the detailed announcement of which was postponed to September 3, will be "balanced between large and small companies", promised the head of government who spoke at the Medef Summer University in the Longchamp racecourse, in the west of Paris. The Prime Minister praised the "power of the means" of this plan, the 100 billion representing "four times more than the plan of 2008, a third of the budget of the State". And "it is in terms of national wealth the most significant stimulus plan announced to date among European countries."
A revival "by supply and investment"
As for its nature, it is a "stimulus by supply and investment", and not by demand. A choice justified according to him by the fact that "household income has been preserved in the crisis" and that "consumption resumed after confinement".
Faced with an audience of business leaders, the Prime Minister detailed the terms of the announced 10 billion euros reduction in production taxes from next year. It is a "measure (...) that we have been waiting for four years" in order to "be able to fight on equal terms with our close competitors", had previously recalled the president of Medef Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux, in his speech of opening.
Several production taxes reassessed
This decrease will pass through a "division by two" of the contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE), via the elimination of the part of this tax which currently returns to the regions, explained Jean Castex. In addition, the government will reduce the cap on the territorial economic contribution (CET) as a share of added value "from 3% today to 2% tomorrow".
Finally, "the method of property taxation of industrial premises will be fundamentally reformed with the objective of halving the tax burden on these premises," said Jean Castex. "It is these taxes which weigh on the factors of production (...) independently of the profitability of the companies", recalled the Prime Minister.