Invited to speak at the Meeting of French Entrepreneurs (REF), organized by the Medef and which opened on Monday August 28 at the Lonchamp racecourse in Paris, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, assured the bosses that “there will be no tax increases”, including for businesses. However, it confirmed the postponement of the total abolition of the contribution on the added value of companies (CVAE) to 2027, instead of 2024, which the employers’ union criticizes.
“Some fear that companies will be taxed more”, but “there is no question of it”, declared the head of government, before affirming: “What I can confirm to you is that the entire CVAE will be eliminated before the end of the five-year term, and that we will do it at the fastest possible pace, taking into account another objective that I think we share: the need to maintain our trajectory of control of our public finances. »
Just before her, the new president of Medef, Patrick Martin, once again denounced from the podium the government’s plan to postpone the abolition of this production tax. “In addition to altering the confidence of entrepreneurs in the word of the State – because, yes, the State was committed to it, the law was passed – a new spread of the abolition of the CVAE would be a very bad signal,” he said.
Opposition from the Medef to the postponement of the abolition of the CVAE
“Our businesses, particularly our industrial businesses, urgently need this immediate removal, at a time when international competition is intensifying and when we must invest massively in decarbonization,” he added. This abolition announced for 2024 has been integrated by companies in particular “in terms of investment and hiring decisions”, and “it must take place in due time”, he hammered.
But Elisabeth Borne insisted on the need to stay the course in terms of stabilizing public finances, in a more difficult macroeconomic context. “If we didn’t do this, I think every business leader knows this, it would have an immediate impact on interest rates and therefore on our economic activity,” she added, highlighting the “pro-business policy” conducted by the government since 2017.
She also assured that in terms of sick leave, “there will not be a unilateral decision that would fall on the companies”, while the president of Medef expressed concern that companies would be charged with “certain sick leave for which they are essentially not responsible”.
Emmanuel Macron calls on employers to “unity”
In a pre-recorded video message broadcast at the opening of the event, the President of the Republic for his part declared on Monday that he “needed” French employers, sending a “message of unity”, “to win the battle for employment and growth, and to “project our country towards the challenges of tomorrow”.
“In the moment in which we live”, marked by multiple geopolitical uncertainties, “I am absolutely convinced that unity must prevail”, declared Emmanuel Macron, hammering “I need you” – a call already launched in the same terms to the mayors of France in 2019, or to the members of the presidential party at the dawn of its re-election campaign in 2022.
“The fiscal-social trajectory that you are going to record with the government which will be reflected in the finance bills and the Social Security financing bills and everything that follows must, for me, proceed from this battle. “, estimated Emmanuel Macron.
“You know you have a president and a government that when it commits to things, does it. I expect the same from you,” concluded the Head of State.
Before the heads of the executive, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, had already tried to reassure the business world on Monday morning about the stability of the government’s economic and fiscal policy. “There is nothing to worry about, we have been remarkably consistent in lowering taxes, both for households and businesses. I will not deviate from this line,” he said on France Inter.
