The Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, rejected superprofit taxes on Saturday night by rejecting amendments from the left and centrists who planned to tax windfall profits from big corporations against government advice.
Senators rejected a left-wing amendment 181-97 and a centrist amendment a closer 181-152 vote during the first-reading review of the 2023 finance bill.
The debate revived by the senatorial left
The left has revived the debate on this controversial issue in the Senate, after the decision of the Constitutional Council that buried their hopes of obtaining a referendum on the taxation of “super profits”.
During the debate, communist senator Eric Bocquet denounced a government that “refuses to seek superprofits.”
“Rejecting this exceptional contribution is a bad message sent to the French,” said Senator Bernard Delcros from the centrist group.
In his response, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, justified his rejection by assuring that this measure “would also overtax companies that have had nothing to do with the current situation” of rising energy prices.
The Senate had already rejected the idea of a tax on “super profits” or “exceptional profits” from large groups this summer, after another combined offensive by the left and the centrists.
European position
The majority présidentielle, after the fissures appear in their voices on the question, semble s’être rangée derrière the position of the government, for whom the solution to été found: il s’agit de l’accord conclu le 30 septembre entre Etats membres de the European Union.
The European Commission then indicated that it wanted to claim a “temporary solidarity contribution” from gas, coal and oil producers and distributors who are making massive profits thanks to rising prices after the war in Ukraine.
It must be set at 33% of the participation in the super profits of 2022, that is, profits that are more than 20% higher than the average of the years 2019-21, taking into account the measures adopted by the States that already tax these profits .
France transposes this European agreement into its 2023 budget, which, according to Gabriel Attal, should contribute “11,000 million euros” to the State.
The Commission was careful not to use the word “tax” because any new tax provision at European level would have required unanimity of the Twenty-seven, a more complicated and risky procedure than adoption by qualified majority.
Source: BFM TV
