“I don’t know what a super profit is,” said Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire to employers on Tuesday, while Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne did not rule out taxing them.
“I know that companies must be profitable, that’s all I know”, added the number two of the government in front of a conquered public on the occasion of the REF, the summer university of the Medef.
Terminal does not close the door
Elisabeth Borne said Saturday to our colleagues from Parisian that she did not want to “close the door” to a taxation of “super profits” of companies, a claim from the left. But she added that she would prefer that each company that can “lower prices for the consumer and give purchasing power to its employees”.
In front of employers, Bruno Le Maire repeated that he had asked several companies that had made exceptional profits due to soaring energy prices or bottlenecks in transport or logistics “to alleviate the invoice of our compatriots”.
“I know that Total, CMA-CGM [armateur]distributors, a number of other companies have already made efforts to redistribute what they have earned directly into the pocket of the consumer,” explained the minister.
Medef strikes back
The president of Medef Geoffroy Roux de Bézieux had for his part judged Monday that “the biggest super profiteer”, “is the State. He then added that, “Tax revenues for the first half of 2022 increased by 27 billion euros”.
Without denying this figure, Bruno Le Maire rejected his analysis: “We cannot be blamed on the one hand for spending too much to protect households and businesses and on the other hand telling us that we could have made profits in the matter “.
“What I see is that when you lower the corporate tax rate, revenue increases, proof of the effectiveness of our tax policy,” hammered the minister to applause.