“Too many taxes kill taxes”, “France doesn’t like the rich”, “Tax fed up”… For decades, tax has been discredited with clichés and false truths, suspected of being at the origin of all the ills of our society. A pernicious and cynical speech, which succeeded in convincing the middle classes that when we talked about taxing the richest, it was in reality they who were targeted.
Politically, the work of undermining and distorting reality worked perfectly. Just take inheritance taxation as an example. While it is a powerful vector for the reproduction of inequalities and the richest 10% today accumulate more than half of the total inheritance – as in the 19the century – the French remain largely opposed to an increase in inheritance taxes. An inversion of reality which aimed to massively reduce taxes for the richest. And the ploy worked: today, wealth taxation has disappeared throughout Europe, except in Spain.
But reality is now catching up with ideology: it is impossible to hide the explosion in the fortunes of billionaires at the end of the coronavirus epidemic and during the inflationary crisis. A situation that is less and less tenable. Socially first, while 31% of European parents skip meals to feed their children, according to the Barometer Release/Vivavoice. Then economically, when we need to finance the ecological transition, defense and reindustrialization of the continent.
More than a year ago, economists, such as Joseph Stiglitz and Gabriel Zucman, and more than 130 MEPs called for the establishment of an agreement on the taxation of the ultra-rich, based on the model of what was done for The multinationals. In France, the economist Jean Pisani-Ferry, one of the leaders of Emmanuel Macron’s program in 2017, calls for taxation “based on the financial assets of the wealthiest households” to finance the ecological transition; Dominique Seux, daily editorialist The echoesrecognizes that “ the middle classes pay more taxes in proportion than the ultra-rich ». And, on an international scale too, things are changing very quickly: the International Monetary Fund, there European Central Bankall called for taxation of the ultra-rich.
On the side of public opinion, a recent investigation reveals that 65% of French people are in favor of a temporary tax on corporate superprofits, and more than half of a wealth tax. Across the European Union, 78% of the population think their government should do more to fight income inequality.
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