French 100% tax bill: More than 8,000 French households had to pay a more than 100% income tax in 2012, according to reports.
The high tax was because of a one-off levy that was implemented last year on homes with more than $1.67 million in assets, reported Reuters, citing newspaper Les Echos.
The government of President Francois Hollande implemented the tax after he took office, and the newspaper said that more than 12,000 households that paid 75 percent of their income in 2011 and another 9,910 households were taxed at more than 85 percent of their income, according to CNBC.
Hollande’s plan was imparted to offset a rebate scheme and taxation cap that was set up by ex-President President Nikolas Sarkozy, according to the network.
Jennifer McKeown, a top European economist at Capital Economics, told CNBC that the high taxes means Hollande is going after the wealthiest French households.
“I think it emphasizes that, despite the fact that the controversial ”millionaires’ tax“ has been watered down, Hollande’s policies are still targeting wealthy households,” she told CNBC.
Recently, France’s Constitutional Council said the controversial 75 percent tax rate on households with more than 1 million euros was unfair, according to Reuters.
