In France, there are candidates who want to tax the richest but they do not put the cursors at the same level. If, on the other side of the Atlantic, US President Joe Biden wants a minimum tax for those with more than 100 million dollars of wealth – with the aim of making them pay at least 20% of their income in tax – in France, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is perhaps the one who comes closest to it. He wants to tax the highest incomes but he targets those who earn more than 400,000 euros annually – more than 33,000 per month. And above all, the candidate of rebellious France would tax them up to 90% of the money earned.
The communist Fabien Roussel and Philippe Poutou, the candidate of the New Anti-Capitalist Party, also want to introduce a wealth tax but which would cover all or almost all of the capital. Nathalie Arthaud for Lutte Ouvrière, goes a step further and talks about the expropriation of large fortunes. Yannick Jadot wants to remit a solidarity tax on wealth for assets over two million euros, but this tax will include a bonus-malus depending on the impact of the financial and real estate assets on the climate that you hold. In other words, you will pay more if you have shares in TotalEnergies than in a start-up that promotes renewable energies. Anne Hidalgo is also on this credo: she also wants to create an “ISF climate and biodiversity”, to involve the richest and finance the ecological transition.
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The criterion for them is not the climate but financial speculation. For example, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan wants to restore the wealth tax, the ISF, but by concentrating it only on financial fortunes. Ditto for Marine Le Pen, who wants to create a tax on financial wealth.
Another difference: real estate assets. Most right-wing candidates want to reduce its share in the tax calculation. For example, Eric Zemmour, wants to exclude the main residence from the real estate wealth tax, the IFI. This would reduce the number of people subject to it. Valérie Pécresse, the candidate of the Republicans, also wants to reduce the tax on real estate wealth.
Emmanuel Macron does not envisage any major change for his possible second term. It keeps the IFI, the real estate wealth tax, as it is and does not provide for special taxation for the richest.