Giving more ambition to the 2018 Finance Bill to make a success of the economy’s digital transition.
The trade organization for digital companies, which put forward proposals along these lines during the presidential election campaign, is calling for continued efforts to promote the digital transition of the economy and the financing of innovation.
In its proposals for the 2017 French presidential election, Syntec Numérique outlined the possibility of giving companies in the digital sector the chance to be born, develop and grow by developing a four-stage recovery plan:
- Simplifying and reducing French taxation
- Facilitating access to financing for businesses
- Stabilizing the legal and regulatory framework
- Recreate a genuine dialogue between taxpayers and tax authorities
The 2018 Finance Bill, presented today to the Council of Ministers, and the 2018-2022 Public Finance Programming Bill, have clearly taken these recommendations into account by initiating the first two stages. The government has thus sought to give boldness to the 2018 Finance Bill, to help France accelerate its economic transition.
The gradual reduction in corporate income tax to 25% by 2022, the abolition of the 3% levy on distributed income, the introduction of the 30% flat-rate levy on capital income and the transformation of the solidarity tax on wealth (ISF) into a tax on real estate wealth (IFI) are undoubtedly helping to restore France’s fiscal attractiveness. But to develop this tax appeal, we need to go even further, without delay.
We need to give our companies the means to start up, grow and become global champions. To achieve this, we need to facilitate their financing, at every stage and at every level. We also need to secure their loyalty, through attractive and stable tax measures, so that they stay in France and create jobs.
For Godefroy de Bentzmann: ” Removing securities from the wealth tax is not enough. This measure must be accompanied by a strengthening of existing incentives, to create a real shock for investment in SMEs. Scalded by the crisis and fluctuating tax legislation, the French remain reasonable in their investments. We need to reassure them by offering solutions in which they have confidence: increasing the Madelin-PME tax reduction, raising the ceiling on SME life insurance to €100,000, or eliminating social security contributions on PEA-PMEs after five years. “
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Syntec Numérique is also delighted that the research tax credit (crédit d’impôt recherche – CIR), a major mechanism for developing tomorrow’s solutions in which digital companies are pioneers, will be protected and even de-capped by 2018. Companies in the sector invest massively in research and development, and many French digital companies are international benchmarks for innovation. Boldness must be rewarded to make France a leader in innovation. Syntec Numérique has supported the tax authorities on these issues, and will continue to do so.
However, Syntec Numérique regrets that, once again, digital technology is only considered in relation to a small part of its reality: the Internet. In fact, digital disruption is not limited to the development of very high-speed broadband; it encompasses a whole range of solutions and innovations. The sector cannot be stigmatized for a practice of tax optimization that is not reserved for digital companies – at the very most, it can be facilitated by the Internet. Like the OECD, we should therefore be talking about combating tax optimization and rebuilding tax bases, rather than digital taxation, so that we can finally tackle the real solutions.
Syntec Numérique remains at the disposal of the government and members of parliament to continue to help it develop the competitiveness of companies, secure long-term growth, bring France fully into the digital age and promote it internationally.