Establish safeguards. Deputies voted on Monday in favor of better regulating the Dutreil pact, which facilitates the transfer of a family business, to prevent this tax system from being misused to reduce inheritance taxes on personal assets.
The Dutreil Pact, created by the law of the same name in 2003, exempts the transfer of a company to descendants from 75% of the inheritance tax, as long as they maintain it for a certain number of years.
But its effectiveness is in question, with a significant loss of income for the State, as revealed by several studies (including a report from the Court of Auditors that will be published in the coming weeks, whose conclusions have already been revealed by Le Monde) and documented cases of fiscal optimization.
For example, where taxpayers benefit from the provision for non-business assets. Thus, the National Assembly voted in favor of eliminating non-professional assets from the exemptions allowed by the pact.
The Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, requested that a list of personal and luxury goods that are excluded from the system be specified in the budget text after parliamentary scrutiny.
The measure was adopted by 94 votes to 49. The left voted in favor, the deputies of the government camp were divided. The National Group abstained.
Deputies also voted in favor of increasing by two years the minimum holding period for shares transferred under the Dutreil pact.
But for left-wing deputies who wanted to fundamentally reform this pact – because they see it as a fiscal loophole that mainly benefits the richest – this is only a “marginal reform.”
The cost to public finances of the Dutreil pact, long estimated at 800 million euros, would have generated a loss of tax revenue of 5.5 billion euros in 2024, according to the summary of the report consulted by Le Monde.
For LFI deputy Eric Coquerel, chairman of the Finance Committee, optimization is always “possible in professional goods” and should have been regulated much more.
According to Le Monde, the Court of Auditors would recommend reducing the reduction percentage if the company were resold just after the end of the period during which the beneficiaries must retain ownership.
Right-wing MP Sylvain Berrios (Horizons) criticized left-wing elected officials who “are determined to dismantle the family business in France, which represents the heart of our economy.”
Source: BFM TV
