Error diagnosis would therefore be expensive

The crisis is not over. It does even just beginning. And if to this day, it is still not known or when or how us emerge, it seems clear that it is not cyclical, but many structural in the sense that we are witnessing a change in economic paradigm based on debt so far.

For the moment, the debate is therefore in the hands of economists. It is to recreate as quickly as possible the conditions of a self-sustainable growth. But tomorrow, once growth returned, it will move in the tax field. Then appropriate to remedy the situation of our public finances and the first cause of the crisis which we live: widening of inequality over the past thirty years. This is why the issue of increased taxes and the redistribution to recreated are the order of the day. If we add to this that our tax system is gasping for air, that his virtues in a time where he was part of a situation, a cycle, a movement become obsolete, then yes a tax reform is necessary. And out of the crisis will be the right time to achieve.

Everyone agrees to think that to be legitimate in the eyes of the citizens, a modern tax system must be based on a triptych: it must be effective (providing revenue to the State), fair (consolidating the social contract), and simple (to be understandable by all). If submitting our tax of heritage (tax on income, ISF and rights of succession) to these three filters, there is at what point it devalues work, equality of opportunity, and therefore merit. And despite the elegiac speech of our politicians, right and left. In a Word, our tax system works on the head!

The income tax With a narrow base concentrated on work, relatively high rates, all rife with exemptions of any kind, famous tax niches, it looks like a gruyere whose holes would be more important than the consumable! Result, it reports that EUR 55 billion, or 20 of the revenues of the State. For many, its future through a merger with the CSG.

THE ISF Everything has been said on this sacred cow, the totem before which it is prostrate once year. Poorly designed, symbolic, unfair, sometimes confiscatory, unprofitable, it is a French specificity in the hands of politicians. And at the same time, he abandoned the field of rational debate to address one of the passionate debate. In fine, it fills to ease those who still believe that the tax must be of a punitive nature.

The rights of succession Low efficacy, especially since the Tepa law which exempts tax 95 of estates, they are fair in civil matters, where equality prevails on the fairness and testamentary freedom, nor in tax matters, where they are the reflection of a more conservative than liberal society.

Last but not least, the last common denominator in our three tax is certainly their complexity makes them less and less legitimate in the eyes of taxpayers. A such teaches that our tax system has become over time a superposition of reforms without overall consistency.

Again, the output of crisis will certainly be the right time for tax reform. But three conditions. First, well wait for the moment of crisis exit to not kill the recovery in the egg; then, much to identify the causes of the crisis to address reform; Finally, wait to know the terms of crisis (growth, inflation, rates of interest...)

Decisions in this area will shape the France for the next thirty years. Error diagnosis would therefore be expensive. It is urgent to consider a tax reform. But still too early to be implemented.