Inflation: Like the Assembly, the France Senate rejects superprofit tax.
The amendment was rejected by 155 votes in favor and 177 against.
Rebel. The right-wing majority Senate rejected in turn, on Monday, the idea of a tax on the "superprofits" or "exceptional profits" of large groups, despite a combined offensive by the left and the centrists. The amendments to the draft amending budget for 2022 to try to introduce such a taxation, already applied in Great Britain or Italy, were all rejected.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had immediately reiterated his opposition to the "Pavlovian reflex of the tax", arguing that large companies "must participate in the collective effort, by returning the money directly to the French rather than to the Public Treasury". "You reduce the senators' proposals to Pavlovian reflexes, but the watchdogs of Parliament that we were nevertheless watching over the Nation with a spirit of fiscal and social justice," retorted centrist Sylvie Vermeillet.
France Senate rejects superprofit tax
The centrist group proposed to institute, for companies whose net profit would have been 20% higher in 2021 than the average of the three years 2017, 2018 and 2019, an "exceptional solidarity contribution on superprofits" up to 20%. "We were able to vote exceptional supporters (for companies, editor's note), it seems to me today that we can hope for an exceptional contribution," pleaded Ms. Vermeillet.
"There is nothing shocking for us to have a tax that is limited in time," said centrist Nathalie Goulet. The amendment was rejected by 155 votes in favor and 177 against. For its part, the PS group has put on the table an exceptional tax of 25% on the superprofits of oil and gas companies, maritime transport companies, such as CMA-CGM, and motorway concessionaires.
According to the PS, this tax would raise about 4 billion euros for Total, 925 million euros for Engie, 4.4 billion euros for CMA-CGM, and 875 million euros for motorway dealers. It would "restore tax fairness between French companies," according to Rémi Féraud.
France Senate rejects superprofit tax statements
"We must get out of this debate with at least one euro of contribution from companies," urged Pascal Savoldelli for the communist-majority CRCE group. For the environmentalist Daniel Breuiller, "we need small taxes for small incomes and big taxes for big profits". Among other arguments to oppose a tax, the minister put forward the "fiscal stability" which "has no price".
"Big companies will make an effort to help the French," recalled the boss of the RDPI senators, majority La République en marche, François Patriat. If they "do not keep their commitments, then we will take them into account in the future budget". For example, TotalEnergies announced a discount of 20 euro cents per liter of fuel at the pump between September and November at all its gas stations, then 10 cents per liter for the rest of the year.
France Senate rejects superprofit tax comments
- How do you want our senior officials and politicians to punctuate the multinationals who will welcome them with open arms the day they decide to go private? They are the same ones who delivered the state-owned enterprises to them during the privatizations.
- When it is to give, especially to large companies, billions in aid every year on the backs of taxpayers and even more during the health crisis, in this sense it immediately goes much better for B. The Mayor and for the senators. But when it comes to doing the opposite and contributing in order to cushion the shock of a crisis for the French, companies that have gorged themselves on public aid are mostly absent.
- Freedom has prevailed, no offense to the left, which is always tempted by racketeering and unlimited taxation. Large companies committed to CSR will make the discounts they consider possible without compromising their ability to pay salaries to their employees and dividends to their shareholders. To trust rather than to monitor and punish as Foucault would have said.
