The amendments providing for the taxation of windfall profits of large companies or “superprofits” were rejected by the senators.
SourceAFP
© DAMIEN MEYER / AFP
Published on
– Modified
VS’is another setback for MPs from the left and centre. The Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, rejected the amendments of the left and the centrists planning to tax the windfall profits of large companies, Saturday, November 19. These amendments, which were proposed against the advice of the government, were rejected by 181 votes against 97 for that presented by the left and 181 votes against 152 for that of the centrists, during the examination in first reading of the bill finance for 2023.
The left has revived the debate on this controversial subject in the Senate, after the decision of the Constitutional Council which buried its hopes of obtaining a referendum on the taxation of “superprofits”. During the debate, the communist senator Éric Bocquet denounced a government which “refuses to seek superprofits”. “Refusing this exceptional contribution is a bad message sent to the French,” said, for his part, the senator of the centrist group Bernard Delcros.
In his response, the Minister for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, justified his rejection, assuring that this measure “would also overtax companies which have had nothing to do with the current situation” of soaring energy prices. The Senate had already rejected this summer the idea of a tax on the “superprofits” or “exceptional profits” of large groups, after another combined offensive by the left and the centrists.
READ ALSOTax on superprofits: what the co-rapporteur of the Assembly’s mission recommends
The presidential majority bets on the European Union
The presidential majority, after cracks appeared within it on the question, seems to have sided with the position of the government, for which the solution has been found: it is the agreement concluded on September 30 between the Member States of the European Union. The European Commission then indicated that it wanted to claim a “temporary solidarity contribution” from the producers and distributors of gas, coal and oil who are making massive profits thanks to the surge in prices following the war in Ukraine.
It must be set at 33% of the share of the superprofits of 2022, i.e. profits more than 20% higher than the average for the years 2019-2021, while taking into account the measures taken by the States taxing these benefits already. However, the Commission took care not to use the word “tax”, because any new tax provision at European level would have required the unanimity of the Twenty-Seven, a more complicated and risky procedure than adoption by qualified majority.
READ ALSOGermany wants to take part of the superprofits of companies
France is transposing this European agreement into its 2023 budget which, according to Gabriel Attal, should bring “11 billion euros” to the State.