Bruno Le Maire has said it several times: companies will have to show “ exemplary behavior ” to come out of the crisis head high. Several rules to this effect have been enacted in recent days, such as the ban on " paying dividends and buying back shares " if the group has benefited from " the treasury of the State ". This Thursday, the Minister of Economy added a new imperative to the list: any company with " its tax headquarters or subsidiaries in a tax haven " will be excluded from the cash aid announced in recent weeks. " If your head office is located in a tax haven, it is obvious that you cannot benefit from public support"Said the head of Bercy.
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Concretely, the exclusion will take over the framework which already applies to the payment of dividends, we explain to the firm of Bruno Le Maire: companies that have a registered office or a subsidiary in a tax haven will therefore not be able to benefit from the tax deferrals, social contributions and will not be able to obtain a loan guaranteed by the State.
The list of “ tax havens ” corresponds to that of non-cooperative states and territories in tax matters decreed by Bercy and which was reinforced at the start of January by a decree: the new list now includes thirteen countries and territories, compared to seven in the old version . Anguilla, the Bahamas, Fiji, Guam, the United States and British Virgin Islands, the Sultanate of Oman, Panama, Samoa and American Samoa, Seychelles, Trinidad and Tobago and Vanuatu are therefore concerned. Regarding the subsidiaries of companies established in these regions, Bercy will check, on a case-by-case basis, whether the branch is very active, or whether it is only a mailbox allowing the company to benefit from local taxation.
Note however that no European country is included in this list: despite their attractive taxation for companies, states like Ireland or the Netherlands are not considered as tax havens, neither by Paris, nor by Brussels. For its part, the Union considers that " measures already exist " internally in order to gradually unify the tax rates of the different member countries. The French and European lists are therefore entirely turned towards " external threats ". " This is not the time to reinforce tensions between European countries by pointing fingers at them, " justifies an expert on the subject.
In addition, Bercy may not need to go through a legislative text, such as the PLFR, to validate these new rules: loans guaranteed by the State are left to the discretion of the teams of the Ministry of the Economy, recalls- your.
An ongoing debate in Parliament
Like the decision on dividends, Bruno Le Maire's announcement is above all symbolic, no large French company having its head office in one of these thirteen territories. It is also impossible to quantify the economic impact of such a decision. It therefore aims above all to recall the State's commitment against tax evasion, as well as to take an example from Denmark by showing the way to follow for firms. This weekend, the Danish government was the first in the world to exclude from its package of public emergency aid companies registered in one of the tax havens defined by the European Union. A decision that inspired Bercy.
The minister's statements also echoed a debate in Parliament: during the examination of the amending finance bill, senators passed amendments depriving public aid of " all businesses with a subsidiary or establishment established in the list of non-cooperative states and territories drawn up by the Ministry of the Economy ”. These modifications were proposed by elected representatives of the Union centrist, Communist, Republican, citizen and ecologist and Les Indépendants - République et territory groups. " The Senate should find unanimity in favor of this very significant amendment. This would also help France in international negotiations on tax evasion, ”commented the elected (CRCE) Pascal Savoldelli. " In principle, we cannot help companies that have ramifications in a tax haven, " added his colleague (Union centrist) Pierre Louault.
These amendments were, however, received unfavorably by the rapporteur for the text in the Senate, Albéric de Montgolfier, as well as by the government. Both sides criticized " symbolic " modifications , insufficiently precise and with an " extremely limited " scope . The rapporteur, however, qualified his remarks, adding that he understood the " spirit " of the senators' proposals. A spirit that Bruno Le Maire joined on Thursday.
