“I prefer this debate on international taxation to the interminable debate in France on our own tax system,” Le Maire told reporters in April.
‘Nothing has been ruled out’
For France’s opposition parties, which broadly speaking are less pro-business than Macron, there’s now disquiet that the government’s backing for the super-rich tax gives it the opportunity to claim it is taking action to tackle inequality, when the chances that every government at the G20 — from Beijing to Istanbul and Washington to Riyadh — is going to agree on genuine reform is a long shot, at best.
“It cannot be an invitation to do nothing at the national level while waiting for all countries in the world to find an agreement,” left-wing French lawmaker Eric Coquerel, who chairs the National Assembly’s finance committee, said. “Unfortunately it is evident that Bruno Le Maire is using that argument.”
It is, after all, not the first time that Macron’s government has used global tax reform as a way to dodge a tax controversy at home.
In any case, there’s some evidence the government is being more cautious about the plan in private. While Le Maire publicly referred to the plan as modeled on the one agreed at the OECD for companies, which includes a minimum tax rate, a French Economy Ministry official said it didn’t necessarily have to be like that. For now, “nothing has been agreed, nothing has been ruled out,” the official said.
The politics may be smart. Macron has little to fear from endorsing a proposal that would only see the light of day years from now, said Tommaso Faccio, head of secretariat at the Independent Commission for the Reform of International Corporate Taxation (ICRICT).
“If you touch the interests of the elites, you don’t risk street riots like those of the yellow vests,” he said, referring to the violent protests against Macron’s plans for higher taxes on fuel ― crucially affecting everyone, not just billionaires ― that erupted in 2018. “Le Maire probably also supports this proposal as a distraction tool at the national level,” he added.
