To turn the page on pensions and restore color to a popularity that is more gloomy than ever, the president and the government are betting on the middle classes. To seduce those who have “the feeling of doing their part without being rewarded for their efforts”, the executive is accelerating on economic measures. RSA, labor law, fraud, taxation… According to the announcements, all these projects should be launched before the summer.
“We will redouble our efforts to bring as many beneficiaries of the active solidarity income (RSA) back to work by supporting them better,” said Emmanuel Macron on April 17. A wish that should result in the conditioning of the RSA to 15 to 20 hours of activity per week. Not necessarily synonymous with work, this activity may involve support (training, driving licence, contact with the business world, etc.).
The subject has taken a very political turn, because, beyond the integration of people far from employment, the executive wants to give pledges to the middle classes, this “France who gets up early”, too poor to complete his end of the month but too rich to benefit from social assistance. At present, the RSA is the subject of fraud valued at 1 billion euros. A reality that made Gérald Darmanin, the Minister of the Interior react: “Those who receive the RSA, if they are in a process of integration, if they show effort, they must be helped; but if they do not wish to return to work, it is normal that we have sanctions against them. The idea does not please the left. The Court of Auditors, for its part, pointed the finger in 2022 at a triple failure of the RSA which did not make it possible to get out of poverty while failing to facilitate integration or serve as a springboard to employment.
A better sharing of value is another measure planned by the government for the middle classes: the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, undertook at the beginning of the year to resume as is the agreement on the subject signed by the partners. social in February. The executive should thus transcribe the conclusions reached by the employers’ and employees’ unions in a text carried by the Renaissance deputy Louis Margueritte, and which could be examined shortly. A way of asserting the government’s desire to “renew the dialogue”, assures the parliamentarian. And to send a strong signal by putting in place tools to promote a better distribution of profits made by companies, after the difficult sequence of pension reform.
All this in a context of sharply rising prices and big corporate profits. Concretely, the text would aim to simplify and make more attractive the profit-sharing, profit-sharing and value-sharing bonus schemes by generalizing them in particular to companies with more than 11 employees. To this should also be added a device of “exceptional contribution” requested from large companies which make share buybacks – this way of remunerating shareholders being at the origin of a “feeling of injustice”, to believe Emmanuel Macron, who said last October that “the creation of wealth does not work if we give too much to shareholders and the workers do not see the color”.
The president mentioned it during his address to the 1 p.m. newspaper a month ago. Among the projects launched to get out of the pension reform are “strong measures” to fight against social and tax fraud. According to Bercy, this plan will be presented in the coming weeks.
On the part of tax evasion, the government promises to give itself the means to track down tax evaders by doubling the staff of the judicial finance investigation service (SEJF), announced the Minister of Budget in the wake of the presidential speech. Currently composed of 266 investigators, the SEJF notably participated in March in massive searches of banks in France suspected of tax evasion. The government is also considering more systematic tax audits for very large companies.
In the field of social fraud, statements by Bruno Le Maire sparked controversy last week. “Our compatriots are fed up with social fraud,” said the minister on BFMTV. “They have no desire to see that people can benefit from aid, send it to the Maghreb or elsewhere, when they are not entitled to it. This is not made for that, the social model. Very concretely, to fight against this phenomenon, the government’s plan is to track down the beneficiaries of social aid who transfer them to accounts domiciled abroad such as in Portugal or even the Maghreb countries, all by soliciting the airlines to track their movements. By 2024, the government also wants to raise from six to nine months the condition of minimum residence in France over the year to be able to benefit from social allowances.
Following the president’s speech last week, the Minister of the Budget, Gabriel Attal, spoke readily of a “Marshall plan” for the middle classes in the coming months, a plan in which he would be in charge of the tax component. During the launch of the income tax declaration last week, the minister particularly highlighted Emmanuel Macron’s assessment of tax cuts for individuals, referring in particular to the definitive abolition of the tax on housing, which gives “20 million more purchasing power to all French people”. Or the establishment, in this year’s declaration, of advantages for those who work: increase in the tax credit for childcare expenses, increase in the exemption ceiling for overtime, exceptional revaluation of the mileage allowance scale for French people “who must use their vehicle to work”. On this specific point, the government will “exceptionally” increase the scale of the mileage allowance by 5.4%, a tax measure which concerns two million taxed households using their personal vehicle for professional purposes, according to an announcement made by Gabriel Attal on France 5. As a reminder, this scale had already been raised by 10% in January 2022.
Finally, Bercy is currently considering a new measure that could be included in the finance bill in the fall. It would aim to lower income tax in order to restore purchasing power to those who work.