“Around 50,000” rich households escape tax, in response to former Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard | EUROtoday

These are “around 50,000” households with excessive property who escape tax on earnings or on capital positive factors and dividends, stated, Friday February 27, the previous Minister of the Economy Eric Lombard, who had initially launched the alert.

Former supervisor of huge monetary teams, inside BNP Paribas then on the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations, and former member of the Socialist Party, Eric Lombard spent a quick stint at Bercy, from December 2024 to October 2025, within the authorities of François Bayrou. He defined on Friday on RTL that he then wished to take an curiosity in these instances: “I asked that we look into the subject. And I maintain this request. »

It was he himself who opened the controversy by declaring to Release, in January: “Among the wealthiest people, thousands have a tax benchmark income of zero. They pay no income tax! » Parliamentarians, alerted by his remarks, then asked Bercy for details on personal taxation in 2024.

The real estate wealth tax (IFI) affected some 186,000 households in 2024. Among them, senators found, in February, 13,335 with a reference tax income so low that they were exempt from tax on income or on capital gains and dividends.

Financial products

But the figure for wealthy French people not taxed is in truth even higher, Eric Lombard assured Friday. “There are, I estimate, probably around 50,000 households, if we do a quick statistical calculation, who have a modest reference tax income in relation to their financial assets”he instructed Agence France-Presse (AFP). Eric Lombard contains tax households which aren’t liable to the IFI however which maintain a excessive quantity of movable property, akin to monetary merchandise.

“For a significant part, it is linked to what we call tax over-optimization (…) It’s legal (…) Some can find arrangements to reduce their tax base”he additionally instructed RTL. According to the previous minister, “It affects between 0.1 and 0.3% of French people, [po]on whom we need to analyze what is happening”.

“My conviction, in terms of fairness, is that with these new methods for managing one’s income, when one has fairly high income, taxation must also be indexed on assets, in any case on financial savings”he defined.

Eric Lombard, nonetheless, deplored the truth that the tax authorities are solely conscious of a part of the taxpayers’ property, the actual property half. In accordance with French regulation, “there is no declaration of financial assets”he famous to AFP.

“Extremely different situations”

On this topic of taxation of the wealthy, the federal government of Sébastien Lecornu has adopted a defensive place. The new first president of the Court of Auditors, Amélie de Montchalin, when she was nonetheless Minister of Action and Public Accounts in January, declared: “It is not true that tens of thousands of wealthy French people pay no income tax. There is no document at Bercy that would show this. »

His successor, David Amiel, additionally questioned Tuesday within the National Assembly, denounced a “confusion in this debate”with taxpayers in “extremely different situations”. “There are retirees who own property in areas that have experienced a real estate boom. There are entrepreneurs who have extremely variable income”he stated. He promised “a more in-depth analysis of the different possible cases”.

On February 11, the National Assembly created a fee of inquiry into the“taxation of the highest assets and the highest incomes and their contribution to the financing of public services”. In France, 53% of the 41.5 million households having accomplished an earnings tax return for 2024 didn’t pay earnings tax.