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Local France
a day ago
- Business
- Local France
French Senate rejects higher taxes on the rich
By suggesting the threshold, the bill's backers sought to put limits on any fiscal optimisation or avoidance strategies the wealthy employ to minimise their tax bill. The "Zucman tax" is named after French economist and director of the EU Tax Observatory Gabriel Zucman. The tax, he said, could raise around €20 billion per year by targeting 1,800 households. "This measure is extremely targeted at extremely rich people, and especially at those, among those extremely rich people, who pay very little tax today," he said. Advertisement However the bill, opposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou's government, was rejected by a large majority in the upper house, which is dominated by the centre-right. Only 129 senators voted in favour of the measure, with 188 voting against. The law had been sponsored by Green members of parliament and adopted by the lower house, the National Assembly, in February, thanks to left-of-centre support while the far-right Rassemblement National abstained. The proposed system would be "harmful to investors and to our financial resources," argued Finance Minister Eric Lombard in the Senate on Wednesday. In April, the government announced plans to save €40 billion for its 2026 budget. The tax proposal could be a "fiscal illusion" when it comes to the amount of savings Zucman expects, the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, told France Info on Thursday. According to centre-right Senator Emmanuel Capus, the tax is also "totally confiscatory and violates taxation equality". France currently has a 'wealth tax' which is charged on assets - not income - of €1.3 million or above. After five years of residence in France this includes all worldwide assets such as houses in the UK or US. READ ALSO : What is France's 'wealth tax' and who pays it?✎ France has struggled to tame its finances. In March, the INSEE statistics institute reported that France's public deficit reached 5.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, which was slightly better than the six percent that had been forecast. Yet that remains well above the three-percent limit set for members of the eurozone. Bayrou's government is promising to get the deficit down to 5.4 percent this year, with the goal of getting back under three percent in 2029.
LeMonde
a day ago
- Business
- LeMonde
French senators reject tighter tax on ultra-rich
France's Sénat on Thursday rejected a draft law to make the ultra-rich pay at least a 2% tax on their fortune, as the government seeks to cut an alarming deficit. By suggesting the threshold, the bill's backers sought to put limits on any fiscal optimization or avoidance strategies the wealthy employ to minimize their tax bill. The "Zucman tax" is named after French economist and director of the EU Tax Observatory Gabriel Zucman. The tax, he said, could raise around €20 billion per year by targeting 1,800 households. "This measure is extremely targeted at extremely rich people, and especially at those, among those extremely rich people, who pay very little tax today," he said. However, the bill, opposed by Prime Minister François Bayrou's government, was rejected by a large majority in the upper house, which is dominated by the center-right. Only 129 senators voted in favor of the measure, with 188 voting against. The law had been sponsored by Green members of Parliament and adopted by the lower house, the Assemblée Nationale, in February, thanks to left-of-center support, while the far-right Rassemblement National abstained. The proposed system would be "harmful to investors and to our financial resources," argued Finance Minister Eric Lombard in the Sénat on Wednesday. In April, the government announced plans to save €40 billion for its 2026 budget. The tax proposal could be a "fiscal illusion" when it comes to the amount of savings Zucman expects, the governor of the Bank of France, François Villeroy de Galhau, told France Info on Thursday. According to center-right Senator Emmanuel Capus, the tax is also "totally confiscatory and violates taxation equality." France has struggled to tame its finances. In March, the INSEE statistics institute reported that France's public deficit reached 5.8% of gross domestic product (GDP) last year, which was slightly better than the 6% that had been forecast. Yet that remains well above the 3% limit set for members of the eurozone. Bayrou's government is promising to get the deficit down to 5.4% this year, with the goal of getting back under 3% in 2029.
Daily Mail
11-05-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
The richest households in US increased their wealth by $1 TRILLION last year
The richest Americans have gotten much richer, much faster. In 2024, the wealthiest households in the US experienced an unprecedented surge in their financial holdings, adding approximately $1 trillion to their collective net worth - a sum which exceeds the value of Switzerland's entire economy. Over the past 40 years, the share of total US wealth held by the richest 0.00001 percent of Americans - which is about 19 households - grew from 0.1 percent in 1982 to 1.2 percent in 2023, according to the Wall Street Journal. However, in just one year - 2024 - the once slow-growing share jumped to 1.8 percent, or about $2.6 trillion, totaling the biggest one-year increase ever recorded, according to economist Gabriel Zucman. At the end of 2024, the total US household wealth stood at about $148 trillion, according to Zucman, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics. Yet, as wealth has grown for everyone since 1990, the ultra-rich have seen their wealth grow much faster than anyone else, Zucman said. 'You see this gradual rise and then, very recently, dramatic acceleration in the rise of the share of wealth owned by the truly super wealthy,' Zucman told the WSJ. Wealth managers say the stock market experienced a huge boom in 2024, which helped the richest people get even richer by building on gains they had made the year before. 'The super wealthy are not saving money - they own assets that benefit from inflation. They own businesses, real estate, tech platforms, and equity (stock) in asset classes that are growing,' Grant Cardone, an American businessman and New York Times bestselling author, told the 'When asset values go up, their wealth explodes. When governments print money their assets grow. 'And they are highly concentrated in their investments not diversified like Main Street America has been indoctrinated to do.' The two booming years were notably 'the best consecutive years' for the S&P 500 in the last quarter-century, according to the WSJ. But, even with such handsome profits year-after-year, there is risk involved. After President Donald Trump unleashed a global trade war, the markets saw a steep decline, revealing just how quickly the wealth of the super-rich can fluctuate. Because a lot of the the uber-wealthy's money is typically invested in stocks, their net worth can change by billions of dollars in a single day, all depending on the status of the market. The people at the very top - the 0.00001 percent - are worth at least $45 billion each, according to Zucman's research. The exclusive group includes high-profile figures such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Stephen Schwarzman. Bezos splashed out $90 million on a third mansion in Miami's exclusive Indian Creek Island - bringing his total investment in the famed 'Billionaire Bunker' to an eye-watering $237 million Some researchers even refer to them as 'super billionaires.' As the wealth of the rich keeps growing, more people are becoming billionaires, especially in the US. JPMorgan Chase says the US had about 2,000 billionaires last year, up from 1,400 in 2021. While another group, Altrata, counted 1,050 billionaires in 2023, with a combined wealth of nearly $5 trillion. 'The wealthy are playing offense in a system designed by capital - and the middle class is still playing defense with outdated rules. The game's changed. It's time the rest of America catches up,' Cardone said. In 2023, the richest one percent of people in the US owned about 35 percent of all the wealth in the country, according to the World Inequality Database. By comparison, in other countries, the top one percent held much lesser shares like the UK where the top-earners came in at 21 percent, in France the top one percent held 27.2 percent, and in Germany, 27.6 percent, the WSJ reported. Since 1990, people who were already wealthy have gotten even richer, and they've been gaining wealth faster than everyone else. So while the top one percent have increased their share of the nation's wealth, the rest of the population has seen their share shrink. 'You'll see the wealth gap will continue to grow wider faster over the next decade because the system rewards people who make big bets on a few things, not those who simply work hard to earn money and then attempt to save it,' Cardone added. Within that top one percent, the super-rich - called the top 0.1 percent - have done even better. This group, about 133,000 households, each worth at least $46 million, gained an average of $3.4 million every year since 1990. The rest of the top 1 percent, around 1.2 million households worth at least $11 million, saw their wealth grow by $450,000 a year, on average, according to an analysis of Federal Reserve data by Steven Fazzari, an economist at Washington University in St. Louis.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
The 19 richest households in America added $1 trillion in wealth last year
A stunning $1 trillion in wealth was created for America's richest families in 2024, according to a new analysis. Gabriel Zucman, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley and the Paris School of Economics, analyzed the massive increase in wealth and shared the data with The Wall Street Journal. He found that the richest people in the U.S. control a record amount of the country's total wealth — and that their share of that wealth is accelerating like never before. According to the analysis, it took more than 40 years for the top 0.00001% of Americans to grow their share of the total wealth from 0.1% in 1982 to 1.2% in 2023 But in 2024, that 0.00001% — or 19 households — saw its share of the total wealth increase to 1.8%. Total U.S. household wealth in 2024 was around $148 trillion, according to Zucman. 'You see this gradual rise and then, very recently, dramatic acceleration in the rise of the share of wealth owned by the truly superwealthy,' he told the Journal. The 19 households include some familiar names, such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, Stephen Schwarzman, and Warren Buffett. Their growing share of the country's total wealth comes as the U.S. has seen a record number of billionaires. Forbes released its 2025 World Billionaires List earlier this month, finding more than 3,000 billionaires who have a collective $16 trillion — at minimum — making it their biggest and richest class of billionaires ever. For the latest news, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Sign in to access your portfolio
Local France
21-02-2025
- Business
- Local France
French parliament approves flat tax on the 'super rich'
On Thursday, February 20th, a bill to introduce a minimum tax of two percent on the assets of the ultra-rich passed its first reading in France's Assemblée nationale by 116 votes to 39, after more than seven hours of debate. The bill was introduced by the French Green party, on a parliamentary day that allows bills to be presented by smaller parties. It would "put an end to a fiscal injustice that has lasted for too long', according to Écologiste et Social MP Eva Sas. The vote, she said, sent an important signal that, 'the tax immunity of billionaires is over'. Who's affected? The bill would create, from January 1st, 2026, a minimum tax – a tax floor, known as an Impôt Plancher sur la Fortune (IPF), of two percent of the value of assets in income and wealth taxes for anyone worth €100 million or more. There are about 4,000 households in France who are worth that much (and remember that you're taxed as a household in France). Of those, some already pay the equivalent of two percent of their wealth in taxes and social charges. It's only those whose tax payments don't reach that two percent minimum who would be affected. The calculation of the value of their assets takes into account, 'all of their assets, whether located in France or abroad', as well as those who are not domiciled for tax purposes in France, but whose assets are partly located in the country. The bill would, its supporters say, bring in between €15 billion and €25 billion in revenue to the State. That's … interesting It's become known as the Zucman tax, after French economist Gabriel Zucman, director of the EU Tax Observatory. He argued for the establishment of a coordinated tax of two percent on the assets of billionaires in a report for the G20 in June 2024. Spain, South Africa, Germany, Belgium and France have leaned in towards the idea, Le Monde reported in June, but no country has yet adopted it, with Le Monde adding, 'this global minimum tax has little chance of succeeding quickly'. Will it become law in France? Frankly, its chances of making it on to France's statute books look remote at this stage. It has taken the first step in a long and convoluted legislative process. The text will now move to the traditionally more right-leaning Senate, who will probably demand that it is watered it down somewhat. The government, meanwhile, is not a fan. In an interview with Franceinfo, Minister of Labour and Employment Astrid Panosyan-Bouvet indicated that she would have preferred the Assembly to wait for a bill due to be presented in May, though she acknowledged that, 'the debate does raise something that is objectively appalling', when some ultra-rich people in France, 'have a lower effective tax rate than nurses, firefighters or workers of modest means'. But, she said the Ecologists' bill was 'a very bad idea that will miss its target'. And, during the debate, Minister for Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin said: 'It's not that we're fighting the principle,' but the measure 'must be coordinated at the European and international level, and hit its target'. So, the rich won't have to pay any more? The government had already stated its intention to introduce a tax to counter so-called 'tax optimisation' by the wealthiest individuals, which should not exceed a rate of 0.5 percent and would exclude business assets. Meanwhile, the recently-passed 2025 budget includes a contribution différentielle sur les hauts revenus (CDHR) that targets those with an individual income of €250,000, or €500,000 per couple. This measure, which is restricted to 2025, is expected to bring in an additional €2 billion to the state coffers. In addition, the 2025 budget has approved a temporary corporate tax surcharge, which will affect several hundred of the wealthiest French companies and is expected to, bring in some €8 billion to state coffers.
