Conquer Club

Jean-Marc Ayrault's outburst came after France's best-known actor, Gerard Dépardieu, took up legal residence in a small village just over the border in Belgium, alongside hundreds of other wealthy French nationals seeking lower taxes. (just Beligium. Thousands more have already fleed France to other "safer" countries.

France's Socialist President Francois Hollande, who famously once declared "I don't like the rich", has pledged to tax annual income of more than one million euros per year at 75 percent.

David Cameron controversially pledged to "roll out the red carpet" for any French residents trying to flee the massive tax hike.

Mr Hollande has since introduced other hefty new charges on capital gains and inheritance, while increasing France's wealth tax and an exit tax for entrepreneurs selling their companies.

Last week, Britons and other owners of second homes in France were told that the value of their properties could collapse after Mr Hollande's government announced a sharp rise in capital gains tax.

While Mr Ayrault opted not to mention Mr Depardieu yesterday, the Gallic star drew fierce criticism from Left-wing politicians and commentators.

Socialist MP Yann Galut called for the actor to be "stripped of his nationality" if he failed to pay his dues in his mother country, saying the law should be changed to enable such a punishment.

Benoît Hamon, the consumption minister, said the move amounted to giving France "the finger" and was "anti-patriotic".

In a stinging editorial, Libération, the left-leaning daily, called him a "drunken, obese petit-bourgeois reactionary". Le Monde mockingly exclaimed: "Bravo l'artiste!", pointing out he had chosen to make his move "on the eve of a national conference on poverty".

Jean-François Copé, chairman of former president Nicolas Sarkozy's UMP party, yesterday said the actor's departure was "terrible for our country and its image" and called on the Socialist government to introduce "progressive fiscal policies".

Mr Depardieu came out in favour of Mr Sarkozy in the his failed re-election bid earlier this year, even appearing in one campaign meeting to say the incumbent had helped him sort out his "business problems".

But Far-Right National Front leader Marine Le Pen said tax exiles like Mr Depardieu wanted to "have their cake and eat it", adding: "All these people general come running back when they have a health problem."

Belgian income and inheritance taxes are lower than in France, and unlike France, Belgium does not impose a tax on personal wealth, making it attractive for entrepreneurs.

Among Mr Depardieu's neighbours in the village of Nechin will be members of the Mulliez family, who own the Auchan supermarket chain.

France's richest man Bernard Arnault admitted this summer that he had applied for Belgian citizenship, although he insisted it had nothing to do with paying lower taxes.

Juan_Bottom wrote:I still like this. It says something about Patriotism.

Night Strike wrote:How is it tax evasion to move to a country that has a lower tax rate? Tax evasion means you aren't paying the amount of taxes you owe to the government. If you no longer live in that country, you don't owe the government that money, therefore you aren't committing tax evasion.

Night Strike wrote:How is it tax evasion to move to a country that has a lower tax rate? Tax evasion means you aren't paying the amount of taxes you owe to the government. If you no longer live in that country, you don't owe the government that money, therefore you aren't committing tax evasion.

john9blue wrote:it's funny how the chest-thumping nationalists in france are the furthest to the left politically.

Metsfanmax wrote:What's the problem? Hollande says he doesn't like the rich. Gets the rich to move out of his country. Seems like success to me.

SvenTveskägg wrote:... ... ?
How much do you make to think 2 500 000 euro after taxes is unreasonable low?
edit: I mean the taxrate is insane becouse manny employers are exploiting their workers insanely much.

Phatscotty wrote:So what happens when all the rich people leave the country? Is France similar to America, in that the rich people pay all the taxes? (In America, the top 5% pay over 60% of the tax burden)

betiko wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:So what happens when all the rich people leave the country? Is France similar to America, in that the rich people pay all the taxes? (In America, the top 5% pay over 60% of the tax burden)

taxes paid by citizens represent only 18% of the government's income, company taxes represent 17% and 52% comes from VAT and he is raising the VAT rate. Rich people paying their taxes in other countries doesn't represent a lot of the government's income, it's more about the bad image. The government's income are increasing.

Phatscotty wrote:

betiko wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:So what happens when all the rich people leave the country? Is France similar to America, in that the rich people pay all the taxes? (In America, the top 5% pay over 60% of the tax burden)

taxes paid by citizens represent only 18% of the government's income, company taxes represent 17% and 52% comes from VAT and he is raising the VAT rate. Rich people paying their taxes in other countries doesn't represent a lot of the government's income, it's more about the bad image. The government's income are increasing.

But many rich people own companies, and almost all rich people pay the VAT tax right?

betiko wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:

betiko wrote:

Phatscotty wrote:So what happens when all the rich people leave the country? Is France similar to America, in that the rich people pay all the taxes? (In America, the top 5% pay over 60% of the tax burden)

taxes paid by citizens represent only 18% of the government's income, company taxes represent 17% and 52% comes from VAT and he is raising the VAT rate. Rich people paying their taxes in other countries doesn't represent a lot of the government's income, it's more about the bad image. The government's income are increasing.

But many rich people own companies, and almost all rich people pay the VAT tax right?

well, if they are fiscally elsewhere they can still own a company in france that pays company taxes in france and employs people paying french taxes... their company pays french VAT as well. If they falsely live in a foreign country, they will mostly spend their money in france (and they will have more money given that they are paying less direct taxes) and anything they spend in france will be submitted to french VAT as well.

Anyway, the image that this article is trying to give is that all of a sudden the french/swiss border looks like this, withrich french running for their lives!



You are aware that most of the people that earn 1M+ have fiscal advisors that know exactly how to dodge those things anyway right?
Like we have Investment funds from Qatar that have bought the PSG a year ago. Last summer they bought a world class player (Zlatan Ibrahimovic) who has a yearly salary of 14M euros NET after taxes as per his contract. I'm pretty sure they are going to pay part of his salary through shady companies fiscally in other coutries ect, and not everything here.

betiko wrote:populism. French people are a bunch of jealous fucks who hate to see their neighbour do well. If someone makes good money in france, there is always going to be a bunch of haters to say that it isn't money well deserved compared to a blue collar and blablabla.
People here forget how well you live being poor, with the best free health care service in the world and wellfare for every god damn thing. But of course it's never enough, and unions in public services make 2/3 strikes a year asking for impossible things because they are unable to realize what adds up or not.

What frightens me most is to lose competitivity and that foreign companies will have more and more problems investing in france because of the labor cost; the difficulties we will have in with exportations ect.
Right now there is a big thing here because they are closing some big steal foundries when last year the Indian owner (Arcelor Mittal) promised they would keep it open. How can a European country be competitive now a days in this type of industries?