NYT Gift Article
‘Tax the Rich,’ French Protesters Cry, as the Wealthy Push Back on Paying More
With a budget crisis looming, a proposal for a tax on ultrahigh-wealth individuals has grass-roots support, but it adds conflict to an already fragmented political landscape.
As the French took to the streets on Thursday in another mass protest against a government austerity plan, one phrase was on everybody’s lips: Tax the rich.
With a budget crisis looming, lawmakers with the power to bring down President Emmanuel Macron’s third government in a year are demanding that the very wealthy pay more to help fix France’s finances  nearly eight years after Mr. Macron cut taxes on rich individuals and on companies to make the country more business friendly.
But the tax plan, which would place a new 2 percent levy on assets above 100 million euros (about $118 million), is roiling an already fragmented political landscape.
The tax plan, created by and named after the French economist Gabriel Zucman, has become a totem of France’s Socialist and left-leaning parties, which say it will plug France’s ballooning deficit and address inequality. Businesses and right-leaning parties are warning of an economic calamity.
“This would be a terrible obstacle to investment and risk-taking for businesses,†said Patrick Martin, the head of France’s largest employers’ network, Medef. France already has some of the highest taxes in Western countries, he added, and “introducing this tax would be a form of plunder.â€Â
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The issue has reached critical mass after Mr. Macron’s government fell yet again last week over an austerity budget seeking €44 billion in spending cuts. A recent report from France’s auditor, Cour de Comptes, showed that the country’s finances have been deteriorating in part because Mr. Macron’s tax cuts for businesses and wealthy individuals have resulted in €50 billion in lost revenue annually to the treasury.
Nearly all French political parties, with the exception of Mr. Macron’s and a group of conservative and far-right politicians, have tapped into a wave of resentment against “les riches† executives, bankers and entrepreneurs whose fortunes are seen as scandalous in a country where the inequality divide touches a cultural nerve that stretches back to the French Revolution.
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