This IPP Policy Brief analyses the impact of income tax changes announced in the French Budget for 2013, both in terms of revenues and redistribution.

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“French budget 2013: income tax reform”

Authors: Antoine Bozio, Brice Fabre, Jonathan Goupille et Quentin Lafféter

Contact: antoine.bozio@ipp.eu

Abstract

Income tax reform is central to the French 2013 Budget. The goal is to increase tax revenues while restoring a “fiscal justice” judged to have been undermined in recent years. The guiding principle of the reform is to align capital income taxation with that imposed on labour income.

This note studies the redistributive implications of the announced tax reforms, by comparing the change in taxes imposed in 2012 and 2013. The new regulations will increase income tax receipts by seven billion euros and concentrate a large part of the tax burden on the most comfortably-off. Nevertheless, the alignment of taxation on capital and labour incomes is imperfect and may even create new distortions, which could reduce actual tax revenue and limit the redistributive impact of the reforms.

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