Taxes are sacred in France and high. The month in which the annual return must be made has started. President Emmanuel Macron, harassed by pot shots and unpopularity he embraced taxes to be able to get out of the crisis in which the pension reform and the 13 massive street demonstrations have submerged him, when he has 4 years left in his mandate.
The target: regain its lost middle class.
The wealthy in France will face a deluge of financial controls, in a campaign against tax evasion. It is seen as a decision by Macron to win the sympathy of a middle class that voted for him and he abandoned it.
Against the evasion of the rich
Macron was granted 100 days to turn their fortunes around, reconnect with their electorate, and give them a sense that the law enacted in the middle of the night is no injustice.
The government began its “unprecedented” crackdown this week. This was prompted by the reform, which was not voted in Parliament but was approved through the decree mechanism, and imposes a two-year increase in the retirement age at 64 years old.
Opponents from left and right derided the tax campaign. His goal is to recover billions in unpaid taxes by the “rich” and big business, as a cosmetic measure to help Macron, a former Rothschild investment banker, dispel his image as protector of the most powerful.
Eric Coquerel, MP from the radical left opposition party La France Insoumise, who heads the parliamentary finance committee, said: “We will have to see if all this does not concern marketing only and cause a stir.”
Philippe Murer, an economist close to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, called the campaign “a crude attempt to make people think they will attack tax evaders”. Macron “would have a hard time making people forget about it he is “the president of the rich and great friend of bosses and millionaires”.
Political marketing?
Announcing the measures, Gabriel Attal, the public finances minister, said Macron was aware of the public mood. “Obviously we listen to the call for justice. This is the objective of the tax fraud plan, which the president has asked me to present,” he said.
“My plan is increase pressure on the ultra-wealthy and multinationals. But also to lighten the pressure on workers and small entrepreneurs, to give them a breather,” explained the minister.
Gabriel Attal coordinated the plan with Macron but forgot about Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne and her fellow cabinet members, who were not consulted or briefed by anyone before the campaign.
Macron’s pension reforms have sparked violent protests and widespread anger in France. That fight continues.
fines and volunteering
An “elite” body of inspectors, recruited from intelligence and other services, will be tasked with penetrating elaborate schemes used to hide income and will enforce new symbolic punishments.
“In addition to paying his fine, the great tax evader he’s going to paint the tax office”, said the 34-year-old finance minister. There will then be an exemplary punishment: a sort of sanction with volunteering
“After decades of efforts to end a traditional lighthearted approach to taxes, the French have overwhelmingly paid their taxes, among the highest in Europe,” Attal told Le Monde newspaper. But it is estimated that the fraud costs the treasury between 30,000 and 80,000 million euros a year.
“All fraud is serious. But that of the most powerful it is unforgivable. My philosophy is to focus efforts on them and reduce the pressure on the middle class,” added Attal.
In France, the term middle class includes people with lower to middle incomes, with a gross salary of up to €30,000 a year. That’s right, it’s about the working classes high and medium low.
seduce the middle class
“The middle class runs our economy through their jobs and finances our public services through taxes, benefiting from neither welfare nor capital income,” Attal said.
Criticism has also come from conservative Republicans, who broadly support many of the centrist president’s policies. David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes and president of the national association of mayors, said Macron was looking “flatter” the average income, without addressing the underlying problems of public spending.
Macron also aims to please the middle class, with parallel repressions welfare fraud and a new law to regulate immigration, a big deal for right-wing voters.
The new immigration law
Without a parliamentary majority, he now has to debate an immigration law to calm his right but which the rest of those who join can support. For the conservative Republican right, the president is trapped in his own contradictions.
“The government’s attitude on immigration translates the fever of power. They are trapped by their own contradictions. That’s why the right is advancing,” said Annie Genevad, who she claims is trapped by the pressure of her left wing and her right wing.
Despite Macron’s woes, France continues to attract mainly foreign investors. For the fourth consecutive year and after Brexit, France continues to be the country that most attracts investors.
France has received 1,250 international investment projects ahead of Germany and the UK.
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Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.