France

In 2006 a major change was implemented in France regarding the income tax. Not only the top marginal rate was lowered (from 48.09% to 40.00%), but the same treatment was…

No, this is not a joke, but one of the suggestions of the very serious and very official report that the French President Sarkozy commissioned to the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz. Indeed, according to the figures presented by the headed by Stiglitz Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, the traditional disposable income measure, which estimates income per capita in France to be only 66% of income in the US, is inadequate.

According to a poll by TNS Sofres, 2/3 of French people confess to have had any training courses in economics at school or at the University. Only one in ten…

This paper appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

When the economic crisis struck in 2008, the French government assured its citizens that our social model would protect and cushion us; that we would not be hit nearly as hard as other countries in the downturn.

Two years later, one can hardly claim that France has been shielded by its social model. Unemployment has risen constantly, even more strongly than for our peers such as the U.K. and Germany. Even Germany has emerged better off than France, with its excellent export figures.

The French Minister of Economy, Christine Lagarde, recently announced that the government will stimulate the housing market in an attempt to boost the economy. “Building and construction industry is a key sector, with important multiplier effect on the whole economy”, says Lagarde, “Our aim is to improve access to private property, knowing that only 58% of French citizens own their home, while the EU average is at 66%.”

This is a statement of the former minister of finances Thierry Breton. According to him, in 2013 France will exceed the amount of bonds emitted by Germany. The debt in the euro zone will become therefore mostly “latin”, with France, Italy, Spain and Portugal becoming the main debtor nations. They have, adds Thierry Breton, built their national (cheap) debt on the solidity of the German bonds but this era is coming to an end. Nowadays, the totality of the income tax revenues in France is going to the payment of the interest of the public debt.

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal on March 18, 2010

In the wake of his party’s crushing defeat in regional elections, it’s time to take stock of Nicolas Sarkozy’s presidency, three years on. As in the USSR between 1985 and 1991, France has of late experienced a period of perestroika: The government recognizes the need to reform the system, but is simultaneously trying to save it. The hitch is that the system itself is unreformable. It must be replaced.

You can find here links of interest and statistical data about French taxation and debt.

Without any preliminary consultation with the Parliament, the French President Sarkozy announced a subsidy of 1.65 € billions for the agricultural sector. It is hard to imagine where Sarkozy will find this money, given the current economic context and the quasi bankruptcy of the French government. But it is more interesting to question the utility of this subsidy, which amounts for some 2 750 € per farmer.* It is a considerable amount for the state budget, but a highly insufficient one when it comes to the investment that each farmer can realize with it.

France’s Draft 2010 Finance Bill provides for the abolition of the Business Tax, which is perceived by local communities and currently accounts for 10% of their revenues. Called by François Mitterrand “the idiot tax”, the Business Tax is the main local tax, paid every year by nearly 2,9 mln of companies. It is based on the investment in equipment done by local firms (the basis of the tax is the rental value of a company’s tangible fixed assets) plus 1.5% tax on the value added for companies with a turnover exceeding 7.5 mln €.