The Senate, dominated by the right-wing opposition, rejected the taxation of superprofits on Saturday evening, November 19. He refused the amendments from the left and the centrists, which planned to tax the windfall profits of large companies, against the advice of the government.
The senators rejected an amendment from the left by 181 votes against 97 and another presented by the centrists on a tighter result of 181 votes against 152, during the examination in first reading of the finance bill for 2023. The left revived the debate on this controversial subject in the Senate, after the decision of the Constitutional Council which had buried its hopes of obtaining a referendum on the “taxation of superprofits”.
During the debate, Communist Senator Eric Bocquet denounced a government that “refuses to seek superprofits”. “Refusing this exceptional contribution is a bad message sent to the French”, affirmed, for his part, the senator of the centrist group Bernard Delcros. In his response, the Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, justified his rejection by assuring that this measure “would also overtax companies that 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 superprofits or exceptional profits of large groups, after another combined offensive by the left and the centrists.
Brussels calls for a “temporary solidarity contribution”
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 Member States of the European Union.
The European Commission then explained that it wanted to claim a “temporary solidarity contribution” to 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. France is transposing this European agreement into its 2023 budget, which, according to Mr. Attal, must bring “11 billion euros” in the state.
The Commission has been careful not to use the word “tax”because any new tax provision on a European scale would have required the unanimity of the Twenty-Seven, a more complicated and risky procedure than adoption by qualified majority.