French wealth tax would affect less than 1% of households, minister says
3:03 am Thursday, October 03rd, 2024
(Reuters) -France’s plans for a new wealth tax to help to cut the country’s spiralling deficit will affect less than 1% of households, Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin said on Thursday.
The move is part of efforts by the euro zone’s second-biggest economy to balance the raising of taxes without scaring off businesses and wealthy entrepreneurs who create much-needed revenue.
“We are really talking about the very richest among the very richest,” Saint-Martin told France 2 TV, adding that households potentially subject to a wealth tax would have income of 500,000 euros ($551,850) a year.
Prime Minister Michel Barnier this week said he would reduce the budget deficit to 5% by the end of 2025 but that he would have to push back the target date for reaching the euro zone’s common 3% deficit goal to 2029 from 2027. France’s budget deficit is set to reach 6.1% of GDP this year.
Saint-Martin also reaffirmed special tax plans for the country’s biggest companies. He did not spell out precise details but said such companies would have annual profits of at least 1 billion euros.
France is targeting an overall 60 billion euro budget squeeze to rein in its deficit.
“Restoring public finances is going to have to be everybody’s business,” Saint-Martin told France 2 TV.
($1 = 0.9068 euros)
(Reporting by Michal Aleksandrowicz and Jean Stephane BrosseEditing by Sudip Kar-Gupta and David Goodman)
