TotalEnergies unveiled Wednesday to the Assembly its share of taxes and duties paid in the world and in France, calling to avoid “unfavorable signals” which would discourage investments, shortly before left-wing parliamentarians unveiled a text for a taxation on “super-profits”.
TotalEnergies will pay 30 billion dollars in taxes and duties on production worldwide in 2022, announced its CEO Patrick Pouyann, during a hearing at the National Assembly. The group had paid 6 billion in taxes and production taxes in 2020 and 16 billion in 2021.
For France, TotalEnergies pays between 1.6 and 1.9 billion euros in various taxes, contributions, source deductions, added the leader. But the group did not pay tax on profits in France in 2021, its French activities (headquarters, refinery, service stations, etc.) being loss-making.
Asked about the much lower level of his tax and social contributions in France, he replied that most of his oil and gas production activities were abroad and that he had a refining activity in France, in which the group had lost money. He recalled that his group paid taxes in accordance with the principle of territoriality.
The left puts pressure
The announcement this summer of the group’s huge profits, which more than doubled in the second quarter to 5.7 billion dollars, had revived the debate on the taxation of super-profits.
The left-wing parliamentarians have thus presented a text for an additional contribution from certain companies to turnover of more than 750 million euros, all sectors combined. It would apply until December 31, 2025, and would affect those whose additional taxable result is at least 1.25 times higher than the average result for the years 2017-2019, with a progressive scale.
If the left says it wants to pass the text by a referendum of shared initiative, a complex procedure which has never succeeded since its introduction in 2008, it also intends to engage in a balance of power with the government.
The latter hopes to find a solution at the European level, while the Commission wishes to claim a contribution from the producers and distributors of gas, coal and oil, fixed at 33% of the profits, which are more than 20% higher than the average for the years 2019-2021.
Patrick Pouyann has also not failed to favor a European mechanism, with an equal rate between countries, warning against unfavorable signals.
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A taxation of French refineries, to the detriment of the taxation of other refineries, would obviously oblige me (…) to optimize the production of refineries according to the levels of taxation and (…) could have a negative influence on the policies of investments, he warned.
Manuel Bompard, deputy LFI, replies that other European countries are adopting similar measures. France is late. To refuse to allow it to legislate in the name of a competitiveness argument seems to me to be completely unrealistic.
The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, called on the big groups, including TotalEnergies: Mr. Pouyann himself was educated by the French school system, he lives in a country that has given him a lot and now we should put the pressure on the readers to say + wait, you touch a hair and we are going elsewhere +?.
All these people should understand that they are an extraordinary contribution to the rise of nationalist populism. With people like that, who constantly give the impression of extricating themselves from all responsibility, there are people who end up saying to themselves we no longer believe in anythinghe fustig.