France’s Socialist President Francois Hollande’s key ‘soak the rich’ 75% tax pledge has been drastically watered down, according to Le Figaro which doesn’t reveal its source.
The tax won’t apply to rich couples. And it will only apply to income, not property or financial assets. A single person will be taxed if he earns more than one million per year. But for a couple with or without children, the household income will need to exceed two million euros for the 75% tax to apply.
In addition, the 75% tax will apply only to wages and bonuses. Capital income – gains on share sales, property, dividends, interest – will be exempt. This means, for example, a businessman selling his company would escape the tax at 75% on the gain realized on the sale. Exceptional income, that is, one-off windfall profits, of A-list artists and sportspeople will escape the tax too.
Radical left leader Jean Luc Melenchon tweeted that the tax had now been ‘gutted’
