President Emmanuel Macron has been accused of supporting the outgoing Socialist government and fighting for them during France’s 2017 election.
This statement was made due to Macron’s plan to overhaul the tax code. The tax called ISF applies to assets over 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) with rates going from 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent. Macron intends to limit it to just real estate, meaning people with stakes in companies or other forms of wealth would be exempted. That would reduce the number of households subject to the tax to 150,000 from 330,000, according to the finance ministry.
Macron’s changes would reduce the government’s tax intake by about 2.4 billion euros next year, Kedge’s Pichet estimates. By comparison, the French state takes in about 300 billion euros annually.
“The reform of the ISF follows a philosophy of favoring investment,” Macron said Friday. “It’s not a static question of deciding if people are rich or poor, it’s not about punishing people for success during their life. We want to align France with other European countries in funding innovation.”
