Tax the rich and super-profits more? “I have no dogma on the subject”. Surprise: with this little sentence, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal opened the door this Wednesday, March 27 on the 8 p.m. set of TF1 to what until now seemed a taboo: an increase in taxes for wealthier taxpayers or businesses very profitable. The announcement of the abyss of the public deficit, which reached 5.5% of GDP in 2023, was there. As well as the record superprofits of 2023, the year when large CAC 40 companies raked in 146 billion in cumulative profits.
The dogma of “no tax increase”, hammered out by Emmanuel Macron and the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, no longer seems as infallible, as evidenced by certain voices which have been speaking in the majority for several weeks.
Gabriel Attal also made a point of emphasizing that, yes, the government has already taxed some very profitable companies more. This is the case of the oil groups which enriched themselves with the tariff shield and which were taken from an exceptional contribution which it estimated at 600 million euros – a pittance compared to their profits, as underlined the Court of Auditors last week. “We can improve this tax to capture more of the super profits of energy companies,” admitted the Prime Minister. He also cited the case of laboratories which made profits thanks to countless Covid tests during the pandemic, which he “assumed to […] puncture”.
“Do not increase taxes on the French middle classes”
Will he go further? To increase taxes on the richest or super-profits, the Prime Minister set a series of conditions. “I have two red lines: do not increase taxes on the middle classes of French people who work or French people who have worked all their lives and who always earn a little too much to have aid but never enough to be able to get by adequately. All alone”, nor touch “which allows us to finance the work of the French”.
How to proceed ? “Let someone make me credible proposals,” asked the Prime Minister, adding a surprise: “Someone tell me what to do!” Who is he talking to ? He cited the need for a consultation method involving social partners and elected officials. While noting that it is “politically easy” to point the finger at the richest, while France is the country where the marginal tax rate on income is the highest. And one limit: not taxing businesses more overall because “they are the ones who create jobs”.