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In France, super-rich people could be be forced to pay more taxes as the country seeks to boost its military spending.<\/p>\n
The current cabinet is looking at ways of dusting off plans from the previously failed government to tax the super-rich, according to the Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry – \u00c9ric Lombard.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose with significant savings must contribute by paying more taxes,\u201d said Lombard in an interview on FranceInfo on Tuesday, referring to wealthy individuals who dodge higher taxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wish to make this tax permanent but make sure it\u2019s above all a contribution that fights against what we call fiscal over-optimization,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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The minister also talked about how the government is looking at ways to mobilise investors and set up defence-focused investment funds for private investors.<\/p>\n
The French government has plans to increase its defence budget by \u20ac3 billion a year until 2030.<\/p>\n
However, the country has been struggling with a high budget deficit and mounting debt, reaching some \u20ac3.3 trillion.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnnually we pay more than \u20ac50bn euros to our creditors, more or less the defence budget,\u201d said the minister.<\/p>\n
“We will have to make more efforts [to increase defence budgets],” warned Lombard, but he promised that this would not mean cutting back on social spending.<\/p>\n
The National Assembly, the lower house of the French parliament voted in favour of a 2% wealth tax on the assets of the super-rich nearly two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
Although there are very serious doubts that this bill would be accepted by the Senate, it nevertheless appeared as a significant milestone.<\/p>\n
The bill targeted those individuals with a net worth exceeding \u20ac100 million, and it is expected to yield between \u20ac15bn-\u20ac25bn a year for the budget.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n