Taxes in France: welcome to the madhouse!

Three weeks after the appointment of a new Prime Minister, we are still waiting for a government and a draft budget for 2026. The government deficit target is said to be revised from 4.6% to 4.7% of GDP, after 5.4% in 2025. These three weeks have mainly been a brainwashing operation, with the active support of a large number of media outlets, in order to shift the debate on government debt. The only topic of discussion has been a tax on the ‘ultra-rich’ (the Zucman tax). Meanwhile, there was no mention of the excessive cost of the social security system. The talk now is of increasing taxation on capital income and extending the ‘transitional’ taxes created last year on high incomes and corporate profits.