• Gabriel Attal, Minister of Public Account, presented on Monday a series of measures against tax fraud aimed exclusively at the wealthiest.
  • Will this plan really be effective or is it mainly aimed at countering the reputation of a government in favor of the richest?
  • Because by attacking the wealthiest, the minister insists at the same time on the idea of "relieving the pressure on the small taxpayer, the small boss."

Make the ultra-rich and defrauding multinationals pay what they owe."

No, you are not reading the latest leaflet of the France Insoumise, but the statements of the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal. In an interview with Le Monde on Monday, he presented a series of measures against tax fraud: strengthening sanctions for the most serious fraud, a 25% increase in the number of tax audits for the largest assets and a tax audit every two years at least for the 100 best listed companies on the stock exchange.

A targeting in rule of the richest quite rare in Macronia, recognizes Alexandre Eyries, teacher-researcher HDR in information and communication science at the University of Lorraine. The specialist sees it as "a communication plan to counterbalance the reputation of being the government of the ultra-rich and to restore a little the image of the executive, severely heckled with the pension reform".

In a report published in January 2018, the French Observatory of Economic Conditions (OFCE) concluded that after two years of announced reforms, "there would essentially be winners" to the government's tax policy, but that the ultra-rich would benefit much more than the most modest. And two measures taken during the first five-year term, the abolition of the wealth tax on the one hand, and the reduction of APL by five euros on the other, have continued to stick to the skin of the government, exposing it to criticism from its critics.

Announcements that are not very concrete

Moreover, in view of this reputation and the historical protest against the postponement of the retirement age to 64 years, the announcements of Gabriel Attal seem "very timid" in the eyes of Alexandre Eyries. Admittedly, the ultra-rich are targeted, but we do not speak in the columns of Le Monde of the return of the wealth tax or other measures whose scope would have been more decisive, just "more controls, with declarations ultimately very vague and imprecise. "



For economist Thomas Piketty, the announcements will even be "totally ineffective", with a government that hits the problem. "The first thing to do in the tax field would be to have declarations of assets pre-filled by the administration from the cadastre, business ownership registers, bank accounts and national and international portfolios, like pre-filled tax returns, so that we can automatically check how much the wealthiest taxpayers are actually paying and correct the situation based on what we observe." A precision far from the announcements of the government therefore.

Flying to the rescue of the middle class

However, by targeting multimillionaires, the government is also making a gesture towards ordinary taxpayers. "My philosophy is to concentrate efforts [on the ultra-rich] and relieve pressure on the middle classes," said the minister, wishing to "relieve the pressure on the small taxpayer, the small boss, by massifying regularization rather than launching a control [...] There will now be an automatic penalty for the first error. »

It is there, the real concern of the executive. "There has been a real choice for the government for several weeks to deal with the injustice felt by the middle classes. The feeling of being stuck between the very rich and the working classes, who are helped, unlike the intermediate classes," says Bruno Cautrès, professor at Sciences Po's Centre for Political Research. Let us quote pell-mell measure the extension of the tariff shield, the extension of the fuel allowance to more than decile of salary, the increase in teachers' income... In another interview with France Inter in April, Gabriel Attal also announced that he wanted to develop "a Marshall Plan for the middle classes".

The value of work, the heart of government communication

It is difficult to make it clearer. "The government wants to dispel the idea that the middle classes are always the sacrifices of political measures. There, Gabriel Attal clearly announces that he will target the richest instead of the middle classes, "continues Bruno Cautrès.

A roadmap that joins another philosophy of the government for several weeks, that of the famous value of work, the last piece of the puzzle to understand the words of Gabriel Attal. "The government targets those who do not work, by imposing hours of work on RSA recipients for example, but also those whose income can only be due to work with the sweat of their brow, so the ultra-rich," continues Alexandre Eyries. The goal: to show that the work of the middle classes is not in vain, and that it is the latter that really counts in the France desired by Emmanuel Macron.

Since the beginning of the social protest, the president has been firmly convinced that the demonstrations also expressed "a desire to find meaning in his work, to improve its conditions", and not only an opposition to the reform, in his words during his last speech, on April 17. A work deprived of all the revolutionary connotations of the first five-year term. "For a long time, the executive has not been talking about start-up nations or a new economy, but simply about efforts," says Bruno Cautrès. But to reconnect with all categories of French, "it will still take a long time," concludes Alexandre Eyries.

  • Economy
  • Tax evasion
  • Fraud
  • Work
  • Millionaire
  • Gabriel Attal
  • Emmanuel Macron