Coronavirus: the Senate adopts a second 2020 budget amendment

Parliament approved a second amending finance bill (PLFR) for 2020 in a month on Thursday to implement the € 110 billion emergency plan needed to deal with the coronavirus crisis. " It is a PLFR which drastically widens the conditions of support for businesses and citizens, " says Laurent Saint-Martin, LREM deputy for Val-de-Marne and rapporteur for the finance committee at the Assembly. The fact remains that this massive plan, which is particularly burdensome for public finances, is probably already obsolete given the scale of the crisis. "There may be a third amending budget with probably even more impressive figures", Recently admitted the Minister of Action and Public Accounts, Gérald Darmanin. But not for a few weeks…

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The envelope dedicated to the partial unemployment scheme has already been raised during the examination of the text, going from 24 to 25.8 billion euros, including 17.2 billion for the state budget alone. This plan also allocates 7 billion euros to the solidarity fund to help very small businesses and 20 billion to recapitalize large strategic businesses. 8 billion are spent on health care.

There may be a third amending budget with probably even more impressive figures

During the examination of this second amending budget for the crisis, deputies and senators introduced new measures. For employees, overtime is de-socialized and tax-exempt up to a limit of 7,500 euros (compared to 5,000 euros normally) until the end of the “ state of health emergency ”. The rate of VAT applied to protective clothing (gloves, gowns, masks or hydroalcoholic gels) is lowered to 5.5% temporarily, against 20% usually. The parliamentarians also decided to encourage landlords to give up rents via a tax incentive. They also raised the ceiling to 1000 euros for donations made to associations supporting the most disadvantaged who can be deducted from income tax.

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