TotalEnergies revealed to the Assembly its share of taxes and duties paid worldwide and in France (AFP/Archives/Christophe ARCHAMBAULT)
TotalEnergies revealed 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 tax on “super-profits”.
TotalEnergies will pay 30 billion dollars in taxes and production taxes worldwide in 2022, announced its CEO Patrick Pouyanné, 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, deductions at source, 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 “, 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, reignited the debate on the taxation of “super-profits”.
The profits of oil majors (AFP/Archives/Jonathan WALTER)
The left-wing parliamentarians have thus presented a text for an “additional contribution” from certain companies with a turnover of more than 750 million euros, all sectors combined. It would apply until December 31, 2025, and would affect those whose additional taxable income 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 on a European scale, while the Commission wishes to claim “a contribution” from producers and distributors of gas, coal and oil, set at 33% of profits more than 20% higher than the average for years. 2019-2021.
Patrick Pouyanné did not fail to give his favor to a European mechanism, with an equal rate between the countries, warning against “unfavorable signals”.
“Taxation of French refineries, to the detriment of the taxation of other refineries, would obviously force me (…) to optimize the production of refineries according to the levels of taxation and (…) could have a negative influence on the policies investment,” he warned.
Manuel Bompard, LFI deputy, replies that other European countries are adopting similar measures. “France is late. Refusing to legislate in the name of a competitiveness argument seems to me to be completely unrealistic.”
The first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure has challenged the large groups, including TotalEnergies: “Mr. Pouyanné himself was educated by the French school system, he lives in a country which has given him a lot and now we should put the pressure on elected officials 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 extracting themselves from all responsibility, there are people who end up by saying to yourself + we no longer believe in anything +”, he lambasted.
© 2022 AFP
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