Rebelote. The right-wing majority Senate in turn rejected on Monday the idea of a tax on the “superprofits” or “exceptional profits” of large groups, despite a combined offensive from the left and the centrists. Amendments to the draft amending budget for 2022 to try to introduce such taxation, already applied in Great Britain or Italy, have all been rejected.
The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, had immediately reiterated his opposition to the “Pavlovian reflex of the tax”, arguing that large companies “must participate in the collective effort, by returning the money directly to the French rather than to the public treasury. “You reduce the proposals of senators to Pavlovian reflexes, but the watchdogs of Parliament that we nevertheless watch over the Nation with a spirit of fiscal and social justice”, retorted the centrist Sylvie Vermeillet.
177 votes against
The centrist group proposed to institute, for companies whose net profit would have been 20% higher in 2021 than the average for the three years 2017, 2018 and 2019, an “exceptional solidarity contribution on superprofits” to the tune of 20 %. “We were able to vote exceptional support (for companies, editor’s note), it seems to me today that we can hope for an exceptional contribution”, pleaded Ms. Vermeillet.
“There is nothing shocking for us to have a tax that is limited in time,” supported the centrist Nathalie Goulet. The amendment was rejected by 155 votes in favor and 177 against. The PS group, for its part, has put on the table an exceptional tax of 25% on the superprofits of oil and gas companies, maritime transport companies, such as CMA-CGM, and motorway concessionaires.
According to the PS, this tax would raise around 4 billion euros for Total, 925 million euros for Engie, 4.4 billion euros for CMA-CGM, and 875 million euros for motorway concessionaires. . It “would restore tax equity between French companies”, according to Rémi Féraud.
The “fiscal stability” argument
“We have to get out of this debate with at least one euro of contribution from companies”, urged Pascal Savoldelli for the majority communist CRCE group. For ecologist Daniel Breuiller, “we need small taxes for small incomes and big taxes for big profits”. Among other arguments for opposing a tax, the minister put forward “fiscal stability” which “is priceless”.
“Big companies will make an effort to help the French,” recalled the boss of the RDPI senators, with the majority La République en Marche, François Patriat. If they “do not keep their commitments, then we will take this into account in the future budget”. TotalEnergies, for example, announced a discount of 20 cents per liter of fuel at the pump between September and November at all its service stations, then 10 cents per liter for the rest of the year.