Posted on Jan 5, 2022, 11:30 a.m.
The highly sensitive subject of inheritance taxes will he invite into the presidential debate? Several candidates, on the right and on the left, have already outlined avenues for reform, which will appear in their program. Emmanuel Macron, who had retreated on this file at the start of his five-year term, gave some thoughts to the “Parisian”, in an interview conducted by readers of the newspaper.
“I am not one of those who think that it is necessary to increase the inheritance tax at all costs, on the contrary”, first insisted the President of the Republic. “I think there are things to improve. Rather, we must support people to help them pass on modest heritage ”.
“No tax increase”
Insisting on the notion of “popular transmission”, that which concerns amounts which are “not exorbitant”, the Head of State however remained very vague, not detailing any means to achieve it. But, behind the scenes, Emmanuel Macron still seems reluctant to raise the rates (nominal or effective) on the estates of the richest. “As long as I am in my functions, there will be no tax increase,” he reminded readers of the “Parisien”.
The Head of State, who has made no secret of his “desire” to run for a second term at the Elysee Palace, is he considering touching the tax on transmissions? In the ranks of En Marche, it is rather the idea of a capital endowment granted to young people, a measure which has been implemented in particular in the United Kingdom, which is currently being looked at.
A year ago, the proposal of the general delegate of LREM, Stanislas Guerini, for a zero-interest loan of 10,000 euros for 18-25 year olds, had been rejected, because it fueled fears of starting life with a debt. An endowment would avoid this pitfall but would be much more costly for public finances. And the question of universality would arise.
Donation, ceiling, taxation …
On the side of the other candidates, Valérie Pécresse (LR) intends to facilitate donations and reduce the tax on inheritance. His rivals on the far right also want to reduce the tax burden. Conversely, Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI) plans to cap the inheritance at 12 million euros. In the socialist ranks, the deputy Christine Pirès-Beaune, member of the Finance Committee of the Assembly, had tabled a bill to make the taxation of inheritances more progressive.
This is also the almost unanimous recommendation of economists: after the OECD, the report by Jean Tirole and Olivier Blanchard, the Economic Analysis Council defended this idea in a note in December. The CAE calculated that the effective rate paid by the richest 0.1% of French people on the entire inherited heritage would be only 10% because of the multiple exemptions and exemptions (such as the special regime reserved for the life insurance or the Dutreil pact for the transfer of businesses) which benefit the better-off, to the detriment of the upper middle classes, less well treated in comparison.
According to Christine Pirès-Beaune, the complex system, characterized by a multiplicity of scales and reductions which depend on the degree of family proximity, the nature of the goods transmitted, the quality of the beneficiary, etc., means that only 35% of inheritances are taxable in France.
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