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It was one of Emmanuel Macron’s totems for eight years: not to increase taxes. Sébastien Lecornu’s new budget plans to deviate from this, with 14 billion euros in tax increases. Who will be affected?
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More than 30 billion euros in efforts required. But who will be most affected? One of the government’s choices fell on retirees. They alone represent 3.5 billion euros in savings. First, the end of the 10% tax reduction they benefit from. It will be replaced by a reduction of 2,000 euros. This will therefore increase taxes on wealthy retirees. But the measure that will bring in the most is the pension freeze. No increase next year of just over 1% to keep up with inflation.
In Lyon (Rhône), in a bowling alley, the news caused the same grimace as after a defeat. This retiree who receives 2,000 euros in pension per month calculates his shortfall: “1% per month doesn’t represent much, it will represent 20 euros. But hey, 20 euros is 20 euros, it’s necessarily a loss of purchasing power”he points.
Another choice of the government, make the French contribute via income tax. Expected gains: 2 billion euros. Concretely, the tax scale will be frozen and will not follow inflation. Households which received a salary increase and which did not pay taxes therefore risk becoming taxable: 200,000 new taxpayers, according to the government. And among taxed households, many risk seeing their tax increase if they received an increase. A hard blow for a hospital employee: “I think I’m paying too much. I haven’t been able to save for my retirement for two years. It’s terrible, it’s a really hard thing”she laments.
The government finally wants to make the richest pay: 2.5 billion euros in additional taxes by limiting their tax optimization. Like this year, people who earn more than 250,000 euros per year will have to pay 20% minimum taxes. Some 24,000 households will be involved. A tax on family holding companies, sometimes used to avoid taxes, will also be introduced. It remains for the government to convince the National Assembly to vote on its proposals.
