The creation of a tax on the possible “plus profits” of highway concessionaires presents in itself a “high risk” from a legal point of view, warns the Council of State, in an opinion requested by the Government regarding the budget for 2024.
Given the profitability of concessionaires such as Vinci, Sanef or Eiffage, which it considers excessive, the Government is considering taxing exclusively highway companies or taxing all companies linked by a concession contract with the State, a broader scope that includes, in particular, to certain airport companies. operators. To guarantee the legal certainty of these two options, the executive requested an opinion from the Council of State in April, published on Tuesday online on the website of the administrative jurisdiction and broadcast by the newspaper The echoes.
A new tax aimed specifically at highway concessionaires or an increase in their taxation “would present (…) a high risk of being considered by the constitutional judge as a manifestly disproportionate attack on the right to maintain legally concluded agreements,” the Council underlines. of State.
A tax is possible for all dealers
The concessions that bind the State to these companies establish “that in the event of modification, creation or suppression (…) of specific taxes, rights or rates of the highway concessionaire companies”, the latter have the right to “compensatory measures, in particular tariffs”. .
Furthermore, the magistrates of the Royal Palace reject all the “general interest” arguments invoked by the State to neutralize this clause. Therefore, there remains the possibility of taxing companies linked to the State more extensively through a concession contract or a similar contract.
These companies “constitute a homogeneous category that the legislator, for the purposes of budget management, can impose specifically,” writes the Council of State.
But it warns the government: if its expanded tax has the “practical effect of affecting exclusively or almost exclusively” motorway companies, considered more profitable than airport operators, Vinci, Eiffage and others risk demanding the famous “compensation ” provided for by the concession. contracts in case of a new tax.
Source: BFM TV
