Clip presents a bill to tax superprofits and try to obtain a referendum

The text of the left coalition must, in the event of the Disposable Council by one month, obtain nearly five million citizen signatures in nine months to trigger a referendum.

Le Monde with AFP

The new Ecological and Social People’s Popular Union (Nuts) presented, Wednesday, September 21, in the Assembly a bill to tax the superprofits of large companies and try to obtain a shared initiative referendum (RIP), A long -term procedure which must first be validated by the Constitutional Council.

The text was signed by two hundred and forty parliamentarians, said the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure. The bill of the left coalition (composed of rebellious France, the PS, the French Communist Party and Europe Ecology-Les Verts) will have to obtain, in the event of a month, Almost five million citizen signatures in nine months to trigger a referendum.

“We hope that this procedure will create a balance of power” with the presidential majority, underlined Mr. Faure, while the debate on the taxation of superprofits, during the period of high increase in energy prices and Dear life, will punctuate budgetary discussions all fall in Parliament. “What big companies do not pay is all the others that pay it,” added the first secretary of the PS.

Before a hypothetical referendum in several months, the “rebellious” deputy Eric Coquerel, at the head of the finance committee, hopes to “win this battle” in the fall, by amendments to the 2023 budget project.

Taxation of superprofits: the president of the finance committee @ericcoquerel (LFI) announces that the deputies … https://t.co/kgrcccccuk

– Lcp (@lcp)

Some large targeted companies

The text of the Nuts plans to tax the superprofits of “large companies”, “mainly multinational”, with turnover greater than 750 million euros, all sectors combined.

And the left points to the targets: the total oil group, the Sanofi pharmaceutical group and the CMA CGM shipowner, in sectors where “exceptional profits, decorrelated of any innovation, productivity gain or internal internal decision decision have been made to the company “.

The “contribution”, which would apply until December 31, 2025, would affect companies whose additional taxable result is at least 1.25 times higher than the average result of the years 2017, 2018, 2019, with a progressive scale taxation of 20 %, 25 % or 33 % of superprofits.

On the side of the presidential majority, a tax is “neither a totem nor a taboo”, estimates the deputy David Amiel, but the macronists favor a “European solution to avoid a distortion of competition” between countries.

The taxation of exceptional profits should not be a totem or a taboo. The only question must be that of… https://t.co/wdhnfz0rjh

– Amiel_david_ (@david Amiel)

The European Commission offers “a contribution” to producers and distributors of gas, coal and oil and would like to cap the income of electricity producers from nuclear and renewables, which garner exceptional profits.

The RIP procedure has never led since its introduction into the Constitution in 2008 – but its implementation has only been possible since 2015. A previous RIP proposal, against the ultimately aborted privatization of ADP Group ( Ex-Aeroports de Paris), had collected 1.1 million supporters, far from the necessary threshold.

/Media reports.