Taxed To Death

Top France court overturns ultrarich tax, saying it’s unfair

PARIS—Embattled French President Francois Hollande suffered a fresh setback Saturday when France’s highest court threw out a plan to tax the ultrawealthy at a 75 per cent rate, saying it was unfair.

In a stinging rebuke to one of Socialist Hollande’s flagship campaign promises, the constitutional council ruled Saturday that the way the highly contentious tax was designed was unconstitutional. It was intended to hit incomes over €1 million ($1.32 million U.S.).

The court’s ruling took issue not with the size of the tax, but with the way it discriminated between households depending on how incomes were distributed among its members. A household with two earners each making under €1 million would be exempt from the tax, while one with one earner making €1.2 million would have to pay.

In recent weeks, Gerard Depardieu — France’s most famous actor — announced his intention to turn in his French passport and move to a village in a tax-friendly Belgium.

My view:

A 75% tax rate on any amount of income is utterly ridiculous.

Greedy, spendthrift socialists in France will eventually rue the day they introduced such a measure. 

The counterproductive measure will have nasty longer term consequences as wealthy citizens are not  immobile as most common folk.  They can, and will, seek tax havens. With the right motivation, large amounts of capital can leave a country quickly that punishes the wealthy.

Yet denial of reality is a fundamental tenant of socialist entitlement.  The socialist income redistribution dream of perpetual servitude to the state depends on it.