The Tax Proposals Of French President-Elect Macron

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

09 May 2017

French centrist independent candidate Emmanuel Macron was elected to the presidency of France on May 7, after pledging significant tax cuts for businesses and individuals.

Macron won the contest by a comfortable margin, gaining more than 66 percent of the vote in the recent run-off election against nationalist candidate Marine Le Pen, who had proposed raising taxes on companies employing non-French workers.

While Macron has no previous experience in elected office, the former banker was brought into the Government by President Francois Hollande in 2014 to help steer through some pro-business economic and tax reforms. He resigned that post in 2016 and later formed his own centrist party, En Marche!

On the campaign trail, Macron promised to cut taxes by EUR20bn (USD21.9bn), with the reductions divided equally between businesses and individuals.

The program includes a reduction in corporate tax to 25 percent from its existing level of 33.33 percent over five years. This would go beyond the cut to 28 percent for all firms by 2020 approved by the current Government.

In addition, Macron wants to remove investment income from the scope of the wealth tax, so that it effectively becomes a tax on high-value property, and raise environmental taxes.

Please enter your email address to join the Tax-News.com mailing list. View previous newsletters.

To manage your mailing list preferences, please click here »