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Publié le
Vendredi 14 Janvier 2022
The committee for the evaluation of capital tax reforms was set up in December 2018, i.e. one year after the launch of the far-reaching renovation of capital taxation carried by the government and voted by the legislature: introduction of a single flat-rate levy (PFU) on savings income and replacement of the solidarity tax on wealth (ISF) with a refocused tax on real estate wealth (IFI). In addition, the reduction of the corporate income tax (IS), complementary to these transformations, has been programmed over the entire five-year period, with a nominal rate of 25% for all companies from 2022.
Comité d'évaluation des réformes de la fiscalité du capital - Troisième rapport

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In its first report[1], published in October 2019, the committee had "set the scene". It presented the scope of capital taxation in France and its weight in total taxation, recalled the state of the rules just before the reform and the precise content of the reform, and gathered the a priori lessons that could be drawn from a review of the theoretical and empirical economic literature on the subject, at the French and international levels. The committee also presented the available ex ante evaluation of the 2018 reform and the first ex post figures on the taxpayers who benefited from it and on its cost for public finances. However, regarding ex-post evaluation, in the absence of the necessary data and time, the committee contended itself in 2019 to presenting initial qualitative information (hearing of representatives of professional associations, results of a survey of portfolio managers) and the nature of the quantified work it would undertake.

In its second report, published in October 2020[2]2, the committee's work progressed in several directions. First, the landscape was completed: more detailed analysis of France's position before and after the reform compared to other developed countries in terms of taxation of households on their wealth and the income it generates; ex post evaluation of the 2013 reform (which replaced the flat-rate taxation of capital income with a progressive tax), which can be seen in part as symmetrical to the introduction of the PFU. Additional figures were then provided, including the distribution of income from movable property received in 2018 compared with 2017 and the entry and exit of wealthy tax residents in 2018. Finally, the very first elements of evaluation of the introduction of the PFU and the transformation of the ISF into the IFI were presented, even if they remained very fragmentary, particularly the latter.

This third report updates the figures and qualitative information provided in the previous reports and presents the ex post evaluation work carried out by the research teams contracted by France Stratégie on the introduction of the PFU and the transformation of the ISF into the IFI. From all this work, accumulated over three years, the committee has drawn the following conclusions.