PARIS: France will next week make tax concessions in a bid to win financial business displaced by Britain’s decision to quit the European Union, finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on Monday.
“There will be fiscal measures, notably on salaries,” he said in a television interview ahead of a policy statement due to be made by Prime Minister Edouard Philippe on July 11. He was referring to the payroll tax that French banks pay on each employee. French banks have lobbied against the tax, which costs them about 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) each year. Le Maire also acknowledged that Frankfurt, Germany’s financial center, was doing better than France in attracting financial business from London, whose previously undisputed status as Europe’s financial center was thrown into question by the Brexit vote. “Frankfurt is ahead there is no doubt,” he told l’AgefiTV adding: “We can catch up. I am convinced of that.”
