Against the advice of the government, opposition deputies adopted, as part of the examination of the finance bill for 2025, the perpetuation of a surtax on high incomes.
Hostilities are well and truly launched at the Palais Bourbon. During the examination of the finance bill (PLF) for 2025 at first reading on Tuesday October 23, the deputies of the left and the center managed, at the end of the day, to make the surcharge on high incomes. Initially proposed by the government for a period of three years, it was to bring in two billion euros to the state coffers. “You ask everyone to make an effort (…) and the only ones to whom you say “don’t worry, it’s exceptional”, are those who have plenty to live on”asserted Eric Coquerel, president of the Finance Committee of the National Assembly and member of La France insoumise (LFI).
With a view to straightening out the public accounts, article 3 of the PLF as the government had drafted it provided for a little more contribution from the wealthiest, already liable for the exceptional contribution on high incomes (CEHR ), created in 2011 under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy. It would therefore be a question of applying a form of surcharge to the richest, called “differential contribution” in the text of the budget for 2025. A device which was however designed as temporary by the current government since the said “differential contribution” included to the text should only apply to income taxes for 2024, 2025 and 2026.
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If 62,500 households theoretically fell within the scope of this measure, a preliminary study published by the Ministry of the Budget estimated that 24,300 households would actually be liable. And for good reason, to be liable for this differential contribution, the reference tax income (RFR) must exceed 250,000 euros for a single person, 500,000 euros for a couple, and the total amount of income tax and exceptional contribution on high incomes (CEHR) is less than 20% of the RFR.
49-3 in sight?
The sustainability of the differential contribution is, however, far from delighting the government, which is nevertheless in search of savings in all directions. Taxpayers must “know (…) that there will be an end” to such measures, to have “visibility”, replied Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin in particular. For his part, the general budget rapporteur, the centrist Charles de Courson (Liot), had an amendment adopted aimed at limiting the possibility for very well-off taxpayers to use tax advantages or tax credits to reduce the bill. .
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If the overwhelming majority of NFP and RN deputies voted for the amended text, the groups of the presidential coalition were divided between for, against and abstention. The government text “was unbalanced by a form of ideology of permanent fiscal revenge,” lamented Macronist Mathieu Lefèvre, hoping that the executive will not retain this perpetuated version in the event of recourse to 49-3 to pass the text without vote. “I think that Mr. Barnier has already planned to trigger 49-3, and that he is making fun of the world”commented Jean-Philippe Tanguy (RN), regretting that the government “don’t negotiate anything” And “did not support any amendment from anywhere in the opposition”.
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