Emmanuel Macron, do you think stock market investment by individuals should be promoted?
EM: “In general, it is desirable that the savings of the French come as much as possible to finance the real economy, innovation, transitions. The challenge that it comes to support virtuous projects and our growth is to all the more crucial as the health crisis has allowed households to accumulate significant “over-savings”.
Stock market investment by individuals must be valued because it contributes to meeting this challenge and allows everyone to be interested in the success of our companies and in the sharing of the value created. The so-called “Madelin” tax reduction associated with investments in SMEs, the rate of which has just increased from 18 to 25%, or the PEA tax regime, which we have relaxed, help encourage individuals to invest. That being said, it is essential to also continue to raise awareness of the risks of loss and to ensure that the investment, whether intermediated or not, is the result of an informed decision.
The fact remains that direct investment by individuals is not enough and it is above all by working on life insurance, passbooks and employee savings that it is possible to ensure a link between savings and the financing of the economy. This is one of the reasons why we are proposing to have a mandatory profit-sharing mechanism with employees in companies that pay dividends (so-called “Macron” bonus or profit-sharing).
How to redirect the financial windfall towards sustainability in the broad sense (environment AND social)? How to create a REAL flow of wealth to populations and public services? Whether savings, dividends, or capital gains.
EM: “The trickle down does not happen naturally: the incentive, and sometimes the constraint, are inevitable to ensure that investors (individuals or not) focus primarily on the sustainable and local economy. The levers are numerous and of various kinds.
First, as I mentioned, depending on whether the savings are placed in a passbook, in life insurance, in a specific savings plan such as the PEA or the PEE, or even entrusted to an investment fund, its use is subject to a certain number of rules and in particular quotas in order to direct investments as much as possible towards a sustainable economy. We must continue to activate and improve these levers.
Then there is investor awareness. This is what we did with the initiative One Planet Summit Sovereign Wealth Funds, which brings together sovereign wealth funds, asset managers and private equity funds. As we can see, at the request of their shareholders, many listed companies are adapting their behavior to better take ESG criteria into account. The challenge now is the transparency and reliability of information to identify the most virtuous companies. The European Union is at the forefront in terms of extra-financial standards and transparency obligations thanks to the CSRD directive that we are pushing forward within the framework of the French Presidency. Efforts in this direction must be continued. For example, I would like the remuneration of the directors of large companies to depend on compliance with ESG objectives.
Finally, there are sanctions against companies whose behaviors are manifestly not responsive to incentives. For example, we have created an index of professional equality and companies that persist in seeing gender equality as an option must be financially sanctioned, which will be a disincentive to investment. In the same way, the introduction of a carbon tax at the borders of the EU is a way of disadvantaging companies that do not respect the environmental standards that we impose on our players.”
PEA: Do you intend to keep or modify the taxation related to the PEA?
EM: “The PACTE law has given more flexibility on the maximum amount of payments or the eligible securities. Today, the taxation of savings needs stability and there are no plans to modify the rules relating to the PEA .”
There are still tax havens in the EU, scandals revealing massive evasions are recurrent, what do you propose?
EM: “Tax evasion and evasion, whatever the scale, must be fought relentlessly: they create unbearable distortions of competition and injustice and undermine public finances.
We have made a lot of progress on these issues, including at European and international level. I do not want to draw up an exhaustive list, for example, we removed an old rule which allowed Bercy not to transmit tax evasion files to criminal justice, and we even made this transmission automatic so that fraudsters are systematically continued. At European level, banks and consulting firms are now required to declare tax optimization schemes and an automatic exchange of information is organized between European administrations. Internationally, we supported and obtained a historic agreement for multinationals to always pay at least 15% corporate tax.
The fight against tax havens in particular has also made significant progress thanks to international pressure and the sanctions we impose on recalcitrant countries. Beyond the tax issue, there is that of opacity (especially banking) which hinders the fight against fraud and international crime in general. I am determined to continue this fight and be absolutely uncompromising.”
What tax and legal framework should be applied to crypto-currencies?
EM: “On this subject, I defended a balanced line by adapting the rules to defend fair taxation and protect savers, while showing flexibility so as not to curb innovation and new uses. The finance law for 2022 has further clarified the tax framework for crypto-assets. We are moving towards a stable and simple framework. I am also pleased to see French players establishing themselves globally in the field of crypto-assets, such as Ledger or Sorare, and to attract major foreign players to our territory for their establishment.
We must nevertheless remain vigilant to the environmental impact of these new technologies and to ensure that the attraction for crypto-assets does not deprive our real economy of the financing it needs.