Category: France

L’Oreal Chief Criticises Planned 75% Income Tax


L’Oreal Chairman and Chief Executive yesterday criticised the French government’s plans to introduce a 75 percent marginal income tax rate, arguing that it would make it difficult if not impossible for France to attract top talent should the plan go ahead.

Jean-Paul Agon, the chief executive of the world’s biggest cosmetics company L’Oreal, told the Financial Times yesterday that French President Francois Hollande’s plan for a 75 percent tax on earnings over 1 million euros will hurt France’s competitiveness.

French Government To Review Study Linking Monsanto Corn & Cancer


France’s National Agency for Health Safety has been ordered by the government to investigate claims made by a study this week linking Monsanto’s NK603 genetically modified (GM) corn to cancer in rats, reported AFP on Thursday.

France’s Richest Man Seeks Belgian Citizenship Ahead Of ‘Wealth Tax’


Bernard Arnault, the richest man in France and the fourth richest man in the world, has applied to be a naturalised Belgian citizen ahead of a 75 percent tax on the wealthy in France, reported Bloomberg News on Sunday, sparking concern of a potential mass exodus of the rich over president Francois Hollande’s recent reforms.

France Offers To Help Companies Pay For Bulk Of Young Hires’ Salaries


French businesses that hire a person aged between 16 and 25 for at least a year may only have to pay as little as 25 percent of the individual’s salary starting from 2013, reported Reuters on Wednesday, after the government, under socialist president Francois Hollande, announced a new jobs plan that hopes to create up to 150,000 jobs for youths throughout the country.

Is France’s Socialist Fairytale Unravelling?


French President François Hollande may have achieved a remarkable series of political victories – at home and in Europe – since his election in May, but his pre-election promises are now threatening to destroy Europe’s second-largest economy. Under Hollande, France is now headed for a 400 percent debt to GDP ratio; and even if it were somehow, incredibly, manages to reverse course and embrace the most stringent austerity, it would still hit 200 percent debt to GDP by 2040.

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Categorized as France

France To Slip Into Recession For Second Time In Three Years


The eurozone’s second largest economy, France, is headed for another recession by the third quarter of the year, said the nation’s central bank on Wednesday, with the newly-elected Hollande government expected to be forced into deep spending cuts in order to balance the country’s books.

“Sex Work Is Work Too!”: Hundreds Protest Anti-Prostitution Plans In France


Hundreds of French sex workers turned up on the streets of Paris on Saturday, reported Reuters, to protest a government plan to make prostitution illegal and criticise a French minister’s remarks on the sex industry.

Hollande Targets the Rich in a €7bn Tax Plan


France’s Socialist president, Francois Hollande, has unveiled new tax rises worth 7.2 billion euros ($9 billion) that would mainly target the country’s wealthiest households and its biggest corporations. The announcement comes days after the French comptroller warned of gaping shortfalls in its national budget.

France Turns to Budget Cuts to Meet Deficit Targets


France’s national audit office has warned that the French economy must cut up to 43 billion euros in spending this year in order to meet its deficit targets. The audit findings are sobering for Hollande who was one of the toughest critics of Europe’s austerity drive as France turns to a mix of tax increases and spending cuts to balance its 2012 budget.

France Lowers Retirement Age Despite EU Concern


The French government has cut the pension age for some long-time workers from 62 to 60, reported Reuters on Wednesday, fulfilling an election promise made by President Francois Hollande and earning the ire of some EU officials who had previously warned France against the move.