The “exceptional” contribution to the recovery of public finances which will be requested by the government from the “most fortunate” French people as part of the 2025 draft budget will only concern “0.3%” of households, the Minister of the Budget on France 2.
Laurent Saint-Martin cited the example of “a household without children which receives income of approximately 500,000 euros per year”, emphasizing that “we are really talking about the most fortunate”. Questioned by AFP, his ministry specified that the measure would concern around 65,000 households in France, which had 30.6 million in 2021 according to INSEE.
Temporary participation
“After the years of protection of employment, income, and growth that we have had in recent years, we can legitimately ask the wealthiest taxpayers to participate exceptionally, temporarily in this recovery effort,” added the minister. of Budget and Public Accounts, attached to Matignon. Asked whether this contribution, of which he did not specify the terms, would cover a period of one year, he replied: “We will see that in the debate, but it must be temporary, In the same way as for very large companies, this must be temporary. “There will be no general increase in income tax,” recalled Laurent Saint-Martin. “No, there will be no deindexation of the income tax scale,” he added.
Former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on Thursday judged the draft budget outlined by the new Prime Minister Michel Barnier “unacceptable”, criticizing the tax increases which, according to him, are not accompanied by proposals for structural reforms. “We have to explain what we are going to do with the country,” explained the man who was also Minister of Public Accounts between 2017 and 2020. “I will not vote for a tax increase,” he threatened on franceinfo , saying he sees in the contribution of the most fortunate a way to “restore a form of ISF”. “We can always discuss it, but even there I don’t really agree since the money of the richest is in the economy, it should not go into the public coffers,” he argued.