Considered essential by some, but trapped by others, public aid to companies continues to arouse debate, while the government requires efforts “for all French” to rectify public finances. For unions, it would be a question above all that analyzes all these devices, including the tax credit for highly disputed research, before asking for new efforts from employees.
A report by the High Commission for the Strategy and the Plan published on Thursday is trying to clearly see this very difficult to evaluate the maquis “with the key problem of information and readability, for companies and for citizens, which also constitutes a democratic problem.” Only the estimation of the amount of these aids ready to discuss.
“A complex and subjective exercise”
However, the report considers that by adding a first perimeter, based on the European definition of state aid, that is, those that are legal and authorized by the European Commission (45 billion euros), with a second that covers subsidies, fiscal expenses and financial assistance, we reach a total of 111.9 billion euros in 2023, against the 211 billion investments of the Investigation Commission of the Henatories.
In detail, today there is a true Milfeuille of AIDS and subsidies. The 175 budget assistance measures represent almost 40 billion euros, while the 234 tax aid systems (exemptions, tax deductions …) weigh no less than 52 billion euros. Finally, the various financial aid (loans, PGE …) amount to about 17.3 billion euros.
“Having an estimate of all these aid and an analysis of its characteristics is essential to improve the efficiency of public action. Therefore, it seems necessary to establish a definition of commercial aid and give the amount to the constant perimeter every year. These stable elements must be presented in the joint appendix to the draft finance law and the Social Security Financing Law,” argues the report.
A multiplicity of devices that can see the largest companies
The complexity and the vague amount of devices constitute for the authors a brake for business leaders, especially the little ones. And this avoids the satisfactory evaluation of your profits. “This results in a problem of information and clarity, for private actors, as well as for public actors. From the point of view of private actors, this multiplicity of devices runs the risk of advancing to companies, often the largest, to invest in the control of administrative complexity, fiscal optimization techniques and developments related to the instability of public policies can be read.
“In addition, profits are not always legible for companies, including divergence between nominal rates, such as corporate and social security contributions, and rates that are really applied to them.” As well as the real cost for public administrations. “The first is the significant number of measures that will be encrypted. A second difficulty refers to the measures of whose implementation methods are different from simple subsidy or tax exemptions or social contributions,” we can read.
Ultimately, the report urges the State to launch a “complete census in a frozen perimeter, a clear definition, stable and systematically evaluated devices (every three to five years): there would be an improvement, democratic and efficient, of commercial aid.”
Source: BFM TV
