The resigning Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire said on Thursday that he was in favour of tax exemption for athletes’ Olympic bonuses, after double Olympic judo champion David Douillet opened the debate by describing the taxation of these bonuses as a “scandal”.
“I will propose that they be tax-free in the next 2025 budget,” announced Bruno Le Maire in an interview with Le Figaro, stating that “these are exceptional bonuses and exceptional results. It rewards years and years of sacrifice, effort, work, it deserves exceptional treatment”. “It is not up to me to decide (…) but I will prepare measures so that these bonuses” are, he specified.
“It’s a shame”
This Monday, it was David Douillet who opened the debate by describing as a “scandal” the imposition of these bonuses for athletes who won medals at the Olympic Games, of the order of 80,000 euros for gold, 40,000 for silver and 20,000 euros for bronze, according to the scale established by the Ministry of Sports and published on its website.
“For some athletes, it’s pocket money, and for others, in small sports, it’s huge. Taxing that? I think it’s a disgrace,” the double Olympic judo champion (1996, 2000) had said on RMC on Monday. “When an athlete earns 80,000 euros, do you know how long it takes him to get his trinket? Between 10 and 15 years. And it’s more like 15. If you spread 80,000 euros over 15 years, you’ll see what it’s like,” he hammered home.
Bouncing back from this controversy, the Republican MP Olivier Marleix proposed this Tuesday to legislate to exempt these bonuses from taxes. “A consensual PPL (bill, editor’s note) to start the legislature and continue in the hemicycle a moment of national unity!”, launched the former leader of the LR group in the National Assembly on social network X“Let’s exempt our Olympic and Paralympic medallists from tax on their bonuses,” he added.