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French election: Hollande wants 75% tax on top earners
Mr Hollande visited the Paris international agricultural fair on Tuesday
The Socialist favourite in France's presidential election, Francois Hollande, has said top earners should pay 75% of their income in tax.
"Above 1m euros [£847,000; $1.3m], the tax rate should be 75% because it's not possible to have that level of income," he said.
Speaking on prime time TV, he promised that if elected, he would undo tax breaks enacted by Nicolas Sarkozy.
The tax proposal was condemned by his political opponents.
Opinion polls suggest the gap between the Socialist candidate and Mr Sarkozy has narrowed.
The two are tipped to reach the run-off on 6 May, after eliminating other rivals on 22 April.
Taxation for the rich has become a hot campaign issue, with tax advisers in neighbouring Switzerland saying that higher taxes for the wealthy in France could spark an exodus, Reuters news agency reports.
Many of France's richest celebrities already live abroad.
'Patriotic' taxThe French right-of-centre newspaper Le Figaro reports that Mr Hollande's announcement on the TF1 channel appeared to take party colleagues by surprise.
Jerome Cahuzac, responsible for budgetary affairs on Mr Hollande's campaign team, was questioned about the 75% rate on another channel, France 2, just minutes afterwards.
“Start Quote
End Quote Valerie Pecresse Nicolas Sarkozy's budget minister[Francois Hollande] invents a new tax every week without ever proposing the smallest saving”
"You are asking me about a declaration which, for my part, I haven't heard," he said.
Mr Hollande himself renewed his call on Tuesday, saying the 75% rate on people earning more than one million euros a year was "a patriotic act".
"It's a signal that has been sent, a message of social cohesion, there is an effort to be made," he explained.
"It is patriotic to agree to pay a supplementary tax to get the country back on its feet."
Centrist presidential candidate Francois Bayrou dismissed the idea.
He told another TV channel, BFMTV: "I think it was [French film director Michel] Audiard who used the rather rough phrase: the rubbish-ometer [French: deconnometre] is working overtime."
Ministers from Mr Sarkozy's ruling UMP party also attacked the proposal.
Francois Hollande "invents a new tax every week without ever proposing the smallest saving", said Budget Minister Valerie Pecresse and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe denounced the plan as "fiscal confiscation".
When Mr Sarkozy came to power in 2007, he introduced a "tax shield" that capped tax at 50% of all income.
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Comment number 240.
Jerry_S28th February 2012 - 16:51
Taxing the “Rich” has always been seen as a way to solve a nation’s spending problems, but this has never actually been successful. Any tax increase to 75% will have the affect of causing “Capital Income” to leave the Nation and go to where it will earn the highest rate of return at the lowest tax. There is an old saying that applies “50% of something is better than 100% of nothing”.
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Comment number 178.
Don Miles28th February 2012 - 15:56
75% is too high a tax rate. A better rate would be about 40%, but that's unlikely to be the socialist policy. The French economy may be better served by another Sarkozy government.
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Comment number 172.
Jiminy Cricket28th February 2012 - 15:46
We all seem to be playing the game, but throwing at different boards. Neither is right nor wrong. I would much rather see a system of tax incentives given to the 1% whereby the more investments they voluntarily make towards helping the needy, the less tax they have to pay. If a man makes $100 and only gets to keep $25, wouldn’t he prefer to give away 50% to the needy and keep $50 instead?
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Comment number 63.
Death_of_compassion28th February 2012 - 13:56
The only debate about this should be whether 75% is high enough! After all this doesn't come into effect until earnings go past the million euros mark - at that point it should be considered you have plenty and so 90% would be more appropriate. The practicalities of it are another matter but that shouldn't distract from the fact that this would be a step in the right direction.
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Comment number 58.
Anurag Somani28th February 2012 - 13:49
isn't 75% over-the-top?
If a person is smart enough to earn a million euros, he/she would be smart enough to live elsewhere too!
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Comments 5 of 10