Thousands of rich people pay no income tax? Amélie de Montchalin denies “eye to eye”

It’s a short sentence. She had almost gone unnoticed. “Thousands” of wealthy people pay “no income tax”, declared the former Minister of the Economy, Éric Lombard. But, three days later, this Wednesday, while this little sentence gained momentum, the Minister of Action and Public Accounts Amélie de Montchalin was therefore summoned to explain herself.

“It is not true that tens of thousands of wealthy French people pay no income tax. There are no documents at Bercy that would show this. And, if that were the case, it would obviously have been a long time since this situation would have been denounced and corrected,” she declared in front of the deputies, in the National Assembly, “eye to eye”.

“The public finance department (DGFiP) had looked: among the wealthiest people, thousands have a reference tax income of zero. They pay no income tax,” Éric Lombard declared to Libération on Sunday. Note that the former tenant of Bercy spoke of “thousands”, when Amélie de Montchalin spoke this Wednesday of “tens of thousands”. »

The reference tax income is calculated by the tax authorities based on the income declared by taxpayers, and considers the entire income of the tax household. “Instead of paying social security contributions on their salary, they get paid in the holding companies. These mechanisms are legal, but unfair,” continued Éric Lombard.

“Our tax system is failing”

These comments sparked reactions on the left, but also from the alter-globalization association Attac. The economist Gabriel Zucman, promoter of a tax on wealth, considered them “edifying”, believing that “our tax system dramatically fails to make high incomes contribute”.

On the basis of the words of Éric Lombard, and by virtue of his prerogatives as president of the Finance Committee of the Assembly, the rebellious Éric Coquerel asked Amélie de Montchalin to communicate the elements “which could make it possible to establish this observation, whether they be notes, analyzes or figures developed by the services” of the DGFiP.

Amélie de Montchalin also promised to respond “to the president of the Finance Committee, by communicating to him all the notes, all the data, which shows that this diagnosis that I share with you is (…) supported”: “But there are no documents or even realities which would lead tens of thousands of wealthy French people to pay no income tax. »

The Minister of Action and Public Accounts simply admitted that “if tax optimization mechanisms, which we are aware of, lead to the average effective tax rate of the wealthiest in our country being lower than what it should be, we must change the law”.