Everyone has to pay income tax!

There is social solidarity in France today, created at the liberation. But through its mechanisms of protection and redistribution, it is one of the first causes of the increase in public expenditure. However, social security contributions alone cannot absorb these expenses and have negative consequences on employment. In other words, social solidarity must also necessarily merge with our taxation. In fact, solidarity before taxes is implicit in French law. After the Second World War, it even became, in France as in Germany, one of the essential foundations of national taxation. Across the Rhine, the tax system still remains very united today. Thus, the rate of income tax increases gradually and uniformly according to taxable income, without tax brackets as is the case in France. In addition, German income tax (like corporation tax) is subject to a solidarity surcharge intended to support economic reconstruction in the Länder of the former GDR.

The negative effects of the abolition of the first tax bracket

In France, our governments have forgotten that income tax unites citizens with the State. The latter introduced punitive taxation, of which the 75% bracket constitutes a caricature, further illustrated by the abolition of the first bracket of the income tax scale. Of course, this measure benefits three million taxpayers, but, for the rest, it has at least three negative effects. First of all, because of the progressivity of the tax, it still concentrates a little more the weight of taxation on the upper brackets. As Gilles Carrez pointed out: “2% of taxpayers provide 49% of revenue. A unique case in the world”.

This policy exposes, even encourages, offshoring. 100 years after its creation, in France, in 1914, income tax has become a bad tax.

Second negative effect: before this measure, one tax household out of two did not pay income tax. This rate will now rise above 55%. “However, the income tax is the heir of the feudal tax, the size. By paying their dues, today's taxpayers are part of this same tradition,” explains economist Jean-Marc Daniel. The tax exemption thus breaks the relationship between citizens and the state.

http://t.co/ 92LDmu6 - Arif's Blog: How to Whittle a Chain out of Wood

— Arif Mon Aug 22 16:23:01 +0000 2011

A tax that only affects the middle and upper classes

Third negative effect of the abolition of the first bracket of the scale: it is inconsistent with a supply policy as desired today today. Indeed, it is a real misconception to believe that by depriving some people of income, we can improve the lot of others and therefore reduce inequalities. Conversely, it would have been necessary to increase the purchasing power of households by raising wages (example: the United States), by encouraging or establishing competition in all sectors - including in certain services of the State, which would have broadened the tax base.

All in all, placing most of the burden of taxation on the middle and upper classes will only aggravate social divisions and encourage individualism. Solidarity no longer exists if a single category of tax households bears the full weight of the tax and if another category is totally exempt! This tax policy also has perverse effects. The middle or upper classes paying almost all of the tax, they feel overtaxed in relation to the benefits they derive from it. Conversely, exempt taxpayers lose awareness of the cost of the benefits they enjoy. And, above all, the income tax becomes so concentrated that it deters the most productive French people, to the detriment of employment and growth.

A more equitably distributed tax

This is why we must return to a more inclusive tax, that is to say more equitably distributed, and therefore fairer. That each taxpayer pays his share according to his contributory faculties: a tax, even weak, but paid by all, here is how to reinforce solidarity and cohesion between the French. Let us return to a proportional, universal, fair income tax. Thus, we could move towards a single rate income tax where everyone would participate, even symbolically. national solidarity finally rediscovered.