A small gift for companies before validating the accounts. The Minister for BudgetLaurent Saint-Martin, said he was “prepared to ask companies to pay only half, i.e. 2 billion euros, instead of the 4 billion euros in reductions in employers’ social security contributions initially presented in the budget. This would be “so as not to penalize employees at work”. Smic “The minister continued on LCI on Sunday, saying that employers would then see “the cost of that work increase”.
To reduce the public deficit, the French government intends to reduce exemptions from employers’ social security contributions, which have doubled in ten years and are now worth almost 80 billion euros. However, in early November, Economy and Finance Minister Antoine Armand had already said that he wished to “attenuate” the increase in employers’ contributions on low salaries planned in the 2025 budget, without putting a figure on this proposal, in exchange for “other efforts” that could relate to the “tax system”. working hours.
Social VAT” idea rejected
“We don’t work hard enough to finance our social protection”, Laurent Saint-Martin said on Sunday, declaring himself “in favor” of the Senate’s proposal for working people to work an additional 7 hours a year without pay to finance Social Security.
On Saturday, the president of the Medef Patrick Martin had denounced in the columns of Parisien a “recessionary budget” and advocated the introduction of a “social VAT”, warning that with the planned tax hikes, French companies risked hiring less and cutting jobs.
“If we add together the 4 billion euros in cuts in payroll taxes, the 2.5 billion euros transferred from thehealth insurance 1.5 billion in savings on apprenticeship subsidies, that’s 8 billion euros in higher labor costs. This corresponds to the average gross annual salary of 300,000 employees”, he argued.
When asked by LCI journalists about the “social VAT” proposal, Laurent Saint-Martin refused: “If you increase the social VAT, you hit everyone, all consumers”, he declared. Starting Monday, the Senate will examine the French government’s budget. Social Securitybefore the State budget the following week.