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Welcome to European Tribune. It's gone a bit quiet around here these days, but it's still going.
by afew
Fri Mar 30th, 2007 at 05:58:10 AM EST
In a diary last month (Why We Pay Taxes) Jérôme translated a petition launched by the French economics monthly Alternatives Economiques and backed by Libération, in favour of a progressive tax system. It has received over 40,000 signatures.
Alter Eco sent the petition to all the candidates in the presidential election and asked them for their point of view on progressive taxation in the French system, and what reforms they might want to carry out. Nine candidates replied (nothing from Schivardi, Nihous, or Villiers). There's a summary here (FR) and the full text of their replies here.
The candidates' replies are too long for me to translate in extenso, but here are some titbits:
Jean-Marie Le Pen:
Nous avons donc prévu de ne pas remplacer 250 000 postes de fonctionnaires sur les cinq années du mandat : une économie de 8 milliards d'euros. Sur les moyens mêmes des services de l'Etat, nous économiserons 4,5 milliards d'euros et les subventions aux entreprises diminueront de 6 milliards. ...application de la préférence nationale aux prestations sociales par augmentation des cotisations pour les étrangers (gain attendu : 16,3 milliards d'euros) et programme de lutte contre la fraude à la Sécurité sociale (gain attendu : 5 milliards d'euros). L'allègement des charges qui pèsent sur l'Etat a ainsi été calculé au total de 70 milliards. | | Our intention is not to replace 250,000 (retired) civil servants over the five years of the mandate: savings of €8 bn. On the means of the State's services proper, we will save €4.5 bn, and subsidies to businesses will go down by 6 bn. ...application of "national preference" to social benefits by means of increasing foreigners' rates of contribution (expected gain: €16.3 bn) and the fraud-fighting programme in the health insurance system (€5 bn). The lightening of costs that burden the State has thus been reckoned at €70 bn. |
...une simplification radicale s'impose par une visibilité des taux marginaux d'imposition. J'ai opté pour le système le plus visible à quatre tranches : 0 %, 10 %, 15 % et 20 %. <...> l'impôt sur le revenu ... diminuera de 50 % en cinq ans, en commençant par les tranches les plus basses. | | ... a radical simplification (of the income tax) is necessary, by making the marginal rate visible. I have opted for the most visible system with four levels: 0%, 10%, 15%, 20%. <...> the income tax... will go down by 50% in five years, beginning with the lower levels. |
Comment: This is the "nice" version, in which he says what he would do in a five-year mandate. Otherwise his programme has always been abolition of the income tax. With concomitant shrinking of the State. Except for a certain kind of State...
Nicolas Sarkozy:
...c'est un fait que les citoyens et les entreprises françaises sont soumis à des impôts plus élevés que presque partout ailleurs en Europe et dans le monde. Or, sur qui pèsent le plus ces impôts ? Pas sur ceux qui ont signé le manifeste. Arrêtons l'hypocrisie ! Les cotisations sociales, la CSG et la CRDS, la TVA, la taxe d'habitation et la TIPP, qui sont des impôts qui pèsent sur tous les Français, et donc surtout sur ceux qui sont les moins aisés, représentent 66 % du total des prélèvements obligatoires en France, quand l'impôt sur le revenu en représente 7 % et l'impôt sur les successions et les donations 1,2 %. Voilà pourquoi je redis, sans aucun complexe et sans aucune hésitation, que l'un de mes objectifs, si je suis élu président de la République, sera de réduire les prélèvements obligatoires, en particulier ceux qui pèsent sur le travail, d'en ramener le taux (44,4 % actuellement) à celui de la moyenne de l'Union européenne à 15 (40 %) et de rendre pas moins de 68 milliards d'euros aux Français, soit 2 500 euros par famille. | | ...it's a fact that French citizens and enterprises pay higher taxes than almost anywhere in Europe or the world. But who bears the burden? Not those who signed this petition. Let's stop the hypocrisy! Social contributions, CSG and CRDS, VAT, house tax and the tax on petroleum products, that are taxes that burden all the French, and therefore above all the least well-off, add up to 66% of the total tax burden in France, while the income tax runs to 7% and estate taxes 1.2%. That's why I repeat, with neither shame not hesitation, that one of my objectives, if I become president, will be to reduce the tax burden, particularly the part that weighs on labour, to bring down the rate (44.4% at present) to the EU15 average of 40% and to give back no less than €68 bn to the French, or €2,500 per family. |
Comment: This is where you see that Sarkozy's job, apart from politician, is lawyer. When he wrote this, he was still Number Two of a government (and that goes back five years, and he was Minister of Finance in governments before that) that made considerable cuts in the income tax while doing nothing to reduce (or even letting slide upwards) indirect/proportional taxation. Now he makes out the people is groaning under indirect/proportional taxation. Hypocrisy? When you're coming out with a massively dishonest argument and your own hypocrisy is manifest, accuse others of it, it's quite an efficient cover.
It's interesting, otherwise, to note that Sarko is again claiming he will take 4 points of GDP off the tax burden, though his campaign and the UMP back-tracked on it as a way-over-the-top impossible promise. Elsewhere, he's saying it isn't part of his project. It's still not at all clear what his programme is... Except, by reading this little piece of aggressive smart-ass bullshit, we get confirmation that he doesn't intend to raise progressive taxes...
François Bayrou:
L'impôt progressif, c'est une correction des inégalités de naissance qui procurent aux plus aisés les opportunités les plus grandes, à l'école et dans l'enseignement supérieur, et dans la vie professionnelle. <...> Raison pour laquelle je propose que, dans l'immense effort que tous nos concitoyens devront fournir pour réduire la dette et les déficits publics, nous instaurions un plafonnement des niches fiscales. <...> Je souhaite mettre en place une imposition sur le patrimoine à base large (à l'exclusion de l'outil de travail et des oeuvres d'art), à partir de 750 000 euros, mais à taux léger (un prélèvement autour de 1 pour 1000).
Notre pays est confronté à un immense défi : il doit tout à la fois régler le problème de la dette et investir dans l'avenir, l'éducation, la recherche et l'innovation. <...> Tous ceux qui évoquent imprudemment la baisse des impôts ou, à l'inverse, leur augmentation, devraient y réfléchir à deux fois. | | Progressive taxation is a corrector of the inequality of birth that hands the best-off the greatest opportunities, at school and in higher education, and in professional life. <...> Which is why I propose, as part of the immense effort that all our fellow-citizens must make to reduce the national debt and public deficits, we should put a ceiling on tax breaks. <...> I would like to set up a broad-based wealth tax (excluding capital/property in business, and works of art), from €750,000, but at a low rate (around 1 per 1,000).
Our country is faced with an immense challenge: it must at one and the same time settle the debt problem, and invest in the future, education, research, and innovation. <...> Those who call imprudently for the lowering of taxes, or, to the contrary, their rise, should think twice.
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Comment: An immense challenge, to be shared by all: but Bayrou's fiscal suggestions are neither up nor down, just a couple of cosmetic changes. Like Sarko, he blithely ignores the fact that, recently (hence the Alter Eco petition) the income tax was reduced. So who will really make the effort he speaks of?
Ségolène Royal:
L'impôt progressif est l'un des piliers de notre modèle social et économique. <...> Or, aujourd'hui, cette situation est menacée, car notre fiscalité n'est que très marginalement progressive. L'ordre juste, c'est un équilibre entre une fiscalité progressive et une dépense plus efficace. <...> Mon projet n'est pas d'augmenter les prélèvements obligatoires, il est de les rééquilibrer, pour mieux valoriser le travail et l'initiative, et lutter contre l'économie de la rente que la droite nous promet. Je m'oppose à toute réduction des droits de succession et je reviendrai sur le bouclier fiscal, si je suis élue. Il faut aussi s'attaquer aux niches fiscales, qui permettent à ceux qui sont les mieux informés de bénéficier d'allègements d'impôts en tous genres, sans que cela favorise réellement l'activité économique. | | Progressive taxation is one of the pillars of our social and economic model. <...> However, today, the situation is under threat, because our tax system is only marginally progressive. Fair order (l'ordre juste, her campaign slogan) is a balance between progressive taxation and more efficient spending. <...> My project is not to increase the tax burden, but to rebalance it, to increase the value of labour and initiative, and fight the rent economy that the right holds in store for us. I oppose any reduction of the estate tax and will go back on the tax ceiling (60% of income) if elected. It's also necessary to attack tax breaks, which allow the best-informed to get all kinds of tax relief, without it really encouraging economic activity. |
Comment: She too is avoiding recent income tax reductions. The logic of what she's saying seems, however, to be that she would decrease the share of indirect/proportional taxation and increase by a corresponding amount progressive taxation.
The "Other Left" Candidates |
Here's an interesting paragraph from Alter Eco:
Le texte de notre appel en faveur de l'impôt progressif sous ses différentes formes (revenu, fortune et successions) rappelait que « le marché est facteur de progrès parce qu'il permet à l'esprit d'entreprise de s'exprimer », tout en observant aussitôt que les inégalités qu'il engendre pouvaient menacer la démocratie si elles n'étaient pas corrigées par l'impôt et par la production de biens publics accessibles à tous.
Cette position a été vivement contestée par tous les candidats de la gauche de la gauche, dont on pensait pourtant qu'ils avaient tiré les leçons de la crise générale des économies administrées. Olivier Besancenot nous fait la leçon dès sa première phrase, Arlette Laguiller dès la seconde, Marie-Georges Buffet, pour sa part, ne remet pas directement en cause la dynamique du marché, mais c'est pour mieux insister, non sans raison, sur les ravages que produisent des marchés du travail ou financiers insuffisamment encadrés. Dominique Voynet, qui a compté parmi les premiers signataires de notre appel, est plus nuancée et rappelle pour sa part que « le marché est également générateur de destructions environnementales et de coûts sociaux » et que le progrès, à ses yeux, suppose la mise en place « d'une économie plurielle, où le marché côtoie une économie publique et un secteur puissant et organisé d'économie sociale et solidaire ». | | Our appeal in favour of progressive taxation in its different forms (income, wealth, and estate) stated that "the market is a factor of progress because it allows the spirit of enterprise to flourish", while at the same time we remarked that the inequality the market creates could threaten democracy if it wasn't corrected by taxation and by the production of public goods available to all. This position was sharply opposed by all the candidates on the left of the left, although we thought they had understood the lessons of the general crisis of administered economies. Olivier Besancenot takes us to task in his first sentence, Arlette Laguiller in the second, Marie-George Buffet, though she doesn't question market dynamics, insists all the more, not without reason, on the ravages caused by insufficiently-regulated financial and labour markets. Dominique Voynet, who was among the first to sign our appeal, brings in more nuance and says that "the market also generates environmental destruction and social costs" and that her view of progress is that it calls for "a plural economy, where the market exists side by side with a public economy and a powerful and organized social solidarity economy".
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Comment: Once again I find that Dominique Voynet, whom I don't like and who is having a job getting off the 1% mark in the polls, quite often says the best things that are being said in this campaign. As for Alter Eco, though they're right about the socialist "administered" economies, they might tone down the blah-blah about "the market".
Those who read French may get more into the detail of what individual candidates said, I'm sorry I haven't time now, except to note that, of course, the hard-left candidates spoke in favour of raising progressive tax and reducing VAT (for the Trotskyites, reducing the TIPP or petrol (gas) tax too). Bové advocates the Tobin tax on financial transactions.
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