We Demand To Pay More Tax Say Rich French People
A SLIGHTLY surprising letter turned up in a French newspaper today. Coming from a bunch of rich French people they demanded that they be taxed more.
We, chairmen of companies and business leaders, business men and women, finance professionals or wealthy citizens, call for an exceptional levy that would target France’s richest taxpayers.
Well, yes, except there’s a number of teenie problems with this whole idea. One of which is that one of the signatories Liliane Betencourt, the L’Oreal heir, has been getting tax rebates for the past few years. If she really wanted to pay more tax then she could have just not cashed those checks.
The larger point though is that these upright citizens are not in fact offering to pay more tax themselves: that’s simple in any country. Here in the UK you simply send a cheque to “The Accountant, 1 Horse Guards Road” and they send you a nice thank you letter. In the US, the “Gifts to the United States” account performs the same function.
Think the bastard politicians haven’t reached deeply enough into your pocket? Just send ’em a cheque! The thing is, that US account gets in about $3 million a year: about 1 cent per head of population. Us Brits, well, in 2005 an entire five people sent in dosh and four of those were dead. Over the 7 years from 2002 to 09, total extra collections from not dead people were a shade of £7,000. In total that is.
There isn’t a tax ministry in the world that would turn down a cheque: so we know that what these rich people are demanding isn’t actually more taxes upon themselves. That’s easy and if they really wanted to do it they’d already be doing so.
No, what they’re really saying is that rich bastards like them shouldn’t have to chip in a bit more for La Gloire that is France unless everyone else does so too. Which, when you come to think of it, isn’t quite so public spirited of them, is it?
Posted: 25th, August 2011 | In: Money Comment | TrackBack | Permalink