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The government closed the door on Wednesday July 16, 2025, to the establishment of a minimum tax on the wealthy heritage in France on the model of to «Zucman taxes»believing that such a measure, “very unfair”, would harm the economy and the attractiveness of the country.
“We must strengthen our attractiveness to attract more industries and preserve those that exist. This implies not unilaterally and massively increasing the tax heritage taxes, which is the case with the Zucman tax, “said government spokesperson Sophie Prima after the Council of Ministers.
A differential contribution on the high incomes maintained
“This tax would indeed imply for many entrepreneurs to have to sell all or part of their business to pay tax. It is a weakening of our economic system and it is also very unfair, ”she added.
The Senate had rejected in June a bill supported by the left and inspired by the French economist Gabriel Zucman, to ensure that taxpayers whose heritage exceeds 100 million euros pay well at least 2 % of their fortune in tax.
The objective is to prevent the avoidance effects observed in the taxation of certain multimillionaires, able to structure their assets to reduce its taxation. On July 7, seven Nobel Prize in economics called on France to “show the way to the rest of the world” by setting up such a minimum tax.
The Minister of Public Accounts Amélie de Montchalin argued that the government would maintain in 2026 a differential contribution on high income (CDHR) set up this year to guarantee a minimum tax level of 20 %.
She indicated that the government also wanted to deploy measures to combat the over-optimization of non-productive heritage that can be housed in holdings.
Two billion euros hoped
The Minister specified later, before the National Assembly Finance Committee, that “either we do the same tool starting from the said CDHR, or we do two tools and there is technical work to do with parliamentarians on the best way to organize this”, the expected yield being of the order of 2 billion euros.
We do not want to weaken our companies, our entrepreneurs and our capacity for growth.
She estimated that such a floor tax would lead the 1,800 ultra-rich taxpayers to go into exile fiscally and that the “exit tax” which would then be applied to them for five years would end up going out beyond this period.
“If at the end, the consequence is that we are no longer attractive, that there are no more investments, that we have weakened companies and that basically people leave, […] This is not our goal, ”she insisted.
with AFP.
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