A not so exceptional contribution. Initially planned only for the year 2025, the surcharge on large company profits was renewed in the 2026 finance bill.
And the effort requested next year will be even greater than that anticipated in the government’s initial draft. In fact, the executive had initially announced a return reduced by half, up to 4,000 million euros, compared to 8,000 million in 2025. Finally, the deputies approved an amendment that increases the expected income to 6,000 million euros next year.
Specifically, this surcharge affects companies with a turnover equal to or greater than one billion euros in France and that are subject to corporate tax. Between one billion and three billion euros, the corporate tax rate will be 26.25% next year (compared to a “classic” rate of 25% before the creation of the surcharge). Beyond three billion euros of turnover, the corporate tax rate will increase to 33.8%.
More than 400 companies affected
“As the entry threshold for the IS surcharge is not affected, the number of companies affected remains unchanged” compared to last year, Bercy states. Around 440 companies will therefore have to pay this exceptional contribution again next year.
Among them are the flagships of French luxury such as LVMH, which generates 7% of its turnover in France, that is, about 6 billion euros in 2024. The group had already indicated that the 2025 version of the surtax on companies represented a cost of about 700 million euros. This is the highest amount recorded among the responsible companies.
With 1.45 billion euros of turnover in France in 2024, Hermès should also participate. Like the construction giants Vinci and Eiffage, whose turnover in the national territory amounted to 30.2 billion and 11.7 billion euros respectively last year. At that time, a note from Oddo BHF transmitted by Les Échos also listed among the main debtor companies EDF, Crédit Mutuel, Safran, Airbus, L’Oréal, Crédit agricole, Engie, Axa and even BNP Paribas. A list that shouldn’t change much next year.
And then there are special cases such as Totalenergies, whose global turnover amounts to more than 210 billion euros but which makes little or no profit in France. “If I don’t pay income tax, it would be difficult for me to pay a surcharge on income tax,” the CEO of the oil group Patrick Pouyanné said at the beginning of the year.
Which did not prevent him from denouncing, like other large businessmen, a “surcharge on people who carry out an activity in France and obtain profits in France.” For his part, the general director of LVMH, Bernard Arnault, considered this contribution “ideal” to “promote relocation.” “It is the taxation of the product made in France,” he said.
Source: BFM TV
