The truth is François Hollande proposed a 75% income tax rate during the 2012 election campaign but it was struck down by the high court and it never went into effect. No one would ever pay 75% because marginal rates only tax the income over the level where they’re set, just like in the US. The effective rate, which measures the tax paid versus income as a percentage is much lower than the top marginal rates, just like in the US.
An alternative tax reform was finally approved just before the new year. The 75% rate will apply to employers that pay annual wages and salaries over € 1 million ($1,350,000). One-third of it will help fund social security. In the US tax system, we would say that the tax rate on income paid is 50%, not 75%. The 25% surtax for Social Security is a temporary measure that will only be applied for the 2013 and 2014 tax years. Shifting the liability from individuals to their employers eliminates the worry about a mass exodus of the highly paid elite. France doesn’t collect taxes on income earned abroad. The top marginal rate for individual income tax will be 45% compared to 39.6% in the US. It’s not unreasonable.
Ignoring reality and channeling Ayn Rand, DiGiovanni rants about “a frantic bolt for the border by the very people who create economic growth.” She compares these refugees from Socialism to the persecuted Huguenots who left France over 300 years ago. Victimized by an unjust society, the rightwing privileged elite is heading for London, including her lunch date, the would-be assassin. The Finance Minister could probably be persuaded to pay for a farewell party.
The exiting droves are a rightwing hallucination, not reality. There's no supporting proof or evidence.
French citizens who reside abroad retain their voting rights and they have proportionate representation in the Assemblée Nationale. If French citizens are fleeing the “heavy hand of socialism” as DiGiovanni suggests, and yes she did use that phrase, I'd expect to see their antipathy reflected in the election results. In the 2012 election, did the voters abroad show any indication of bias against the Socialist candidates?
The election results are found on the Assemblée Nationale website.
The registered French voters in the UK were combined with others in Ireland, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to reach the minimum requirement. The voters elected the Socialist Party candidate by a larger margin than voters within the borders of France.
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