At the initiative of centrist parliamentarians, the Senate voted on Friday for a slight increase in taxes on the richest households, a symbolic measure of “fiscal justice” which should nevertheless be swept aside by the government in its draft budget for 2024.
In a chamber dominated by the right, this device targeting the wealthiest is rare enough to be highlighted, even if the executive will have every opportunity to withdraw it at the end of the examination of the finance bill thanks to the use of the Article 49.3.
This constitutional weapon allows the government to avoid going through a vote in the National Assembly, where it does not have an absolute majority.
The senators of the centrist group reached a majority to strengthen the progressivity of the exceptional contribution on high incomes (CEHR), a tax targeting the wealthiest taxpayers, in addition to the income tax.
The amendment voted on by a show of hands against the advice of the government and the Senate Finance Committee provides for two new brackets for people with income exceeding 750,000 euros per year. A rate of 5%, compared to 4% currently, would be applied to income between 750,000 and one million euros, then 6% above the annual million.
This is not revolutionary but it allows people receiving very large dividends to participate in the national solidarity effort, explained the centrist Bernard Delcros. This is a measure of tax justice that seems reasonable to us.
The centrist group, allied with the Republicans in the senatorial majority, nevertheless distinguishes itself from the LR on these tax measures and sometimes manages to find alternative majorities with the left.
Two other measures were thus adopted on Friday, aiming to subject to income tax the interest paid within the framework of housing savings and the products attached to life insurance contracts, for revenues estimated at nearly one billion ‘euros.
On the second day of the Senate’s examination of the budget for 2024, the upper house also voted for a one-year extension of the glyphosate tax credit, intended for farmers who no longer use glyphosate-based herbicide.