PARIS: Francois Fillon, one of the two remaining candidates standing for the right to lead France’s main center-right party in the 2017 presidential elections, has proposed major tax cuts for businesses and individuals if he becomes French President.
In something of an unexpected result, Fillon, who was Prime Minister from 2007 to 2012, won convincingly in the first round of the recent primary to elect the center-right’s presidential candidate, a vote which saw former President Nicolas Sarkozy eliminated from the contest. Fillon goes up against remaining candidate, Alain Juppe, also a former French Prime Minister, and previously the favorite to secure the candidacy, on November 27.
Fillon has announced a series of controversial pro-business reforms which he argues will restore growth to the French economy. Among them are some EUR40bn (USD42.5bn) worth of tax cuts for businesses, including a reduction in corporate tax to 25 percent.
Currently 33.33 percent, France’s corporate tax will be reduced to 28 percent by 2020 under the plans of the current Socialist Government.
Fillon has also proposed EUR10bn worth of tax cuts for individual taxpayers and wants to scrap France’s wealth tax, the ISF.
Fillon would offset these tax cuts with substantial cuts in public spending, intended to reduce the size of the French state. However, some of the lost revenues would be clawed back by a proposed two percent increase to value-added tax, which is currently 20 percent.
