Abysmal profits that illustrate, according to the left, the need to tax super-profits. After the announcement of the payment by TotalEnergies of an interim dividend of 2,620 million euros, several Nupes figures tried to push their advantage.
“The magic according to TotalEnergies and B. Lemaire: there are super dividends but not super profits,” Olivier Faure, the head of the Socialist party, remarked ironically on Twitter.
“His indecency knows no bounds”
Total’s announcement comes as France is discussing the issue of creating a special tax on superprofits for companies that have benefited largely from inflation or rising energy prices after the war in Ukraine.
In the second quarter of 2022, TotalEnergies reaped huge profits: the French group more than doubled its net profit in the second quarter, to 5.7 billion dollars, compared to 2.2 billion in the same quarter of 2021.
Olivier Faure presented in mid-September a bill, supported by all the Nupes, dedicated to the taxation of exceptional profits, which should initiate the procedure for a shared initiative referendum on the subject.
“Your indecency has no limits. I support Total employees on strike to obtain salary increases. Rebel deputies, on the social network.
Macron proposes a “fiscal mechanism” at the European level
The same story on the side of the LFI parliamentarian Manuel Bompard who denounces “unbearable” figures.
What moves the government? During the Medef summer universities at the end of August, Bruno Le Maire had claimed not to “know what (what) was a super benefit”, while Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne had not ruled out taxing them.
“I know that companies must be profitable, that’s all I know,” added the Minister of Economy.
A few days later, Emmanuel Macron advocated “a European contribution mechanism” for companies that have made exceptional profits.
The chief economist of the European Central Bank, Philip Lane, suggests taxing high income or super-profits of companies to finance aid to the poorest in the face of inflation, thus avoiding increasing public deficits.
Source: BFM TV
