the majority wants to toughen the tone vis-à-vis companies

Officially, no question of questioning the “supply policy”, common thread of Emmanuel Macron’s first term. But, after a hectic parliamentary summer, which saw the deputies of the presidential majority grappling with particularly heated opposition on the purchasing power bill and the amending budget, they realized that times have changed.

While French groups paid their shareholders a record 44.3 billion euros in the second quarter, according to a study by asset manager Janus Henderson published on Wednesday August 24, and as the university opens on Monday Medef’s summer event, this requires, in concrete terms, a proactive approach to getting companies to contribute to issues of tax justice.

Read also: Taxation: getting out of dogmatism

“Our political, geostrategic environment is different. I demand an open approach”explains Daniel Labaronne, deputy (Renaissance) of Indre-et-Loire and member of the finance committee of the National Assembly. “We have to find a balance”, abounds his colleague from Hauts-de-Seine, Pierre Cazeneuve. Understand: seek more actively compromises on the subjects that animate the oppositions, and resonate with the French. In the line of sight, the taxation of “superprofits”, but also the tax loopholes.

The exceptional profits made by large groups against a backdrop of war in Ukraine had already, this summer, opened a breach between certain deputies and government ministers. At the end of July, in full examination of the purchasing power package, a dozen Renaissance deputies published in The echoes a platform to deplore the participation “insufficient” from TotalEnergies on the fuel discount, and call “solemnly [les] hydrocarbon companies to a new and urgent strategy to help the French people”.

Middle lane

An amendment – ​​then withdrawn – from MP Stella Dupont (Maine-et-Loire) even wanted to impose a “exceptional contribution of solidarity” to oil, gas and transport groups generating more than 1 billion euros in turnover. Since then, TotalEnergies has committed to a discount of 20 euro cents per liter at the pump, in addition to that of the government (30 euro cents in September and October). Cost for the tanker: some 500 million euros.

But the case is far from closed. “If there are exceptional profits made, it seems normal that they are used to help the country in these difficult times”, supports the deputy of Paris, David Amiel. The person who coordinated the Head of State’s program for the presidential election said he was satisfied with the system voted. But he was appointed rapporteur, with his colleague (La France insoumise, LFI) from Bouches-du-Rhône Manuel Bompard, of a “flash mission” on the subject. Amounts at stake, technical feasibility of taxation, similar measures taken abroad… parliamentarians must submit their conclusions in early October, at the start of the parliamentary session.

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