Yanis Darras
modified to
09:51, September 06, 2023
The situation has moved up to the highest peak of the state. In Wattrelos, near Lille, 12 Restos du Cœur trucks were vandalized last weekend, making it impossible to supply around fifty centers in the area, ensuring the food supply of nearly 40,000 people.
A divisive gift
“It’s a really stupid news item, nameless bullshit. I hope that the two culprits will be quickly identified and punished,” said the mayor of the town. Faced with the situation, many donations are pouring in. While the State has promised some 15 million euros, other companies have expressed their commitment, such as Carrefour and Super U, which announce that they will donate food to the Restos du Cœur.
The Arnault family has also announced that it will donate 10 million euros. A generous sum, but which arouses the indignation of part of the political class, in particular on the side of LFI. Several errors have been made by Internet users and elected officials, in particular on the tax exemption of this donation, a little more poisoning the debate on social networks.
Currently, the French can tax a donation up to 66%. But this tax exemption corresponds to a tax reduction, and not to a reimbursement from the State as some X users (ex-Twitter) have implied. On the business side, donations can be tax-exempt up to 60%, within the limit of 20,000 euros or 0.5% of annual turnover excluding tax. A figure that rises to a maximum of 5% of turnover in the event of donations to NGOs distributing free meals.
“A question of the model of society”
The donation will come from the family group “Agache” and will not “give rise to any counterpart or to any tax exemption”, specifies a spokesperson for the billionaire. “I take note of it”, assures, at the microphone of Sonia Mabrouk, the coordinator of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard. “But I also see that Mr. Arnault on his income from last year, to pay the equivalent of 12% in taxes. However, the highest bracket of income tax is 45%. So, if Bernard Arnault had paid his taxes as he should have paid them last year, he would have given 400 million euros to the state coffers, that is to say 40 times more than his donation”, assures the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône.
For the elected official, the question of donations and taxes is above all “a question of a model of society”. “The question that is put to us is: ‘Does a person who has a lot of resources like Mr. Arnault contribute to national solidarity on the basis of the rules that are put in place in our country to share the wealth ?’ Or, do we rely on a model in which it is charity “that takes precedence?, he wonders. Before adding that he does not wish “to rely on charity”.
“Forgive me, but this is not the model of society that I defend”, he concludes, especially “when the gift of the Arnault family, if we reduce it to the fortune of Bernard Arnault, it is the ‘equivalent for someone on the minimum wage of a donation of 30 euro cents’.