who are the French middle class?

2023-05-16 11:35:00

Monday evening, the President of the Republic showed his desire to reduce taxes by 2 billion euros for the middle class during his five-year term.

By Lise Lacombe for Le Point

According to INSEE, the middle class is made up of households with an average standard of living of between 20,850 and 29,560 euros per year.
© Lionel VADAM / MAXPPP / PHOTOPQR/L’EST REPUBLICAIN/MAXPP

Published on 05/16/2023 at 11:35 a.m.

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LEmmanuel Macron’s announcements were eagerly awaited. On Monday, the head of state announced that he aimed to lower taxes by 2 billion euros during his five-year term. He instructed the government to “make proposals” to him on this subject. With this measure, the president seeks above all to relieve the middle class of the fiscal pressure which weighs on its shoulders.

On the set of TF1, he said he wanted to “continue a trajectory of lower taxation on our middle classes”. Emmanuel Macron estimated that “today we help a lot people who are in disarray, who have dropped out”, while “the taxation of middle class income is too important and is accelerating too quickly”.

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But who are the French concerned by these tax relief measures? Gabriel Attal had said that this segment of the population included “more than 15 million households located between the fourth and eighth decile” of income. According to INSEE data from 2019, these are households with 20,850 to 29,560 euros per year of income (income from work, unemployment benefits, pensions, pensions, etc.) after payment of direct taxes. (income tax, housing tax, etc.).

Wealth and debts

Regarding their wealth, the middle classes possessed, at the beginning of 2018, on average between 212,400 and 330,900 euros gross, which amounts to between 189,900 and 277,300 euros net. INSEE qualifies by highlighting the level of debt (home loans, consumer loans) of these households, which is between 10.6 and 16.2% of their gross assets.

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Last week, Gabriel Attal already displayed, in an interview for The worldits desire to reduce the tax burden for the middle class, those “who make our economy run through their work” and who “finance our public services through their taxes without benefiting from social aid and pensions”.

The Minister of Public Accounts presented measures on Tuesday, May 9 to ease the pressure on the middle classes as part of his plan to fight tax evasion. Thus, the minister notably said he was in favor of the principle of the “right to make mistakes”, with a reinforcement of the regularization of each situation, rather than tax audits which can be “very distressing”.

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