Michel Barnier was listened to, even beyond what he expected. As soon as he was appointed, the Prime Minister had mentioned the possibility of a “greater tax justice” and a “ solidarity effort » what it would contribute to “the richest.” The deputies examining the draft budget for 2025 since Wednesday, October 16, have taken him at his word.
Considering the text published by Matignon too timid, the members of the finance commission adopted, in the first hours of the meeting, a series of amendments that increase the effort required of the richest. They expanded the contribution to high incomes, increased the tax on capital income and reinforced the fight against tax exile of taxpayers. A movement all the more surprising as it is led in part by right-wing elected officials for whom this is not the usual political marker.
The immediate objective is budgetary. Faced with an out-of-control public deficit and a debt whose interest is increasingly expensive, Michel Barnier and the Macronist ministers themselves in Bercy broke the taboo on tax increases imposed by the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron. Around 70% of its recovery plan is based on additional taxes, according to the High Council of Public Finances and the French Observatory of Economic Conditions.
But the political issue goes beyond the short term. Above all, it is about slowing or stopping the growth of inequalities in recent decades. The table presented on Thursday, October 17 by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (Insee) is spectacular. Between 1998 and 2021, the average gross wealth of the least gifted 10% of French people fell by 54% in constant euros. That of the best-endowed 10% increased by 94% during the same period. In other words, the poor have become even poorer. And the rich, much richer, especially thanks to the double rise in real estate and stock prices, which has increased the value of their assets.
Limit the use of tax advantages
“The explosion of inequalities in recent decades is a bomb at the heart of our societies”Matthieu Pigasse, investment banker at Centerview Partners and member of the supervisory board of the Le Monde Group, was alarmed on Thursday., during a meeting with the press. Your reading ofA history of inequalities, by Walter Scheidel (Actes Sud, 2021), left his mark. According to the Austrian historian, the increase in inequalities always ends up causing a shock: war, revolution, collapse of the State… “We have reached this moment where inequalities reach an unbearable level”judges the banker. In his eyes, it was particularly to protect himself from such a shock that “The richest must participate in the national effort”.
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