French football clubs 'could be exempt from 75 per cent supertax'
France's football clubs may be exempt from paying the Socialist government's hugely controversial 75 per cent supertax on millionaires, according to comments from the country's finance minister.
11:15AM BST 11 Sep 2013
"We are looking at different views on this issue, but it's true that we have football clubs which are in a fragile financial state," he said.
The 75 per cent tax – a key electoral promise of President François Hollande – has already sent several Gallic public figures, including star actor Gérard Depardieu, running for fiscal cover.
But the constitutional court shot it down as unfair because it applied to individuals and not households.
Just when France thought it was buried, Mr Hollande in April announced it would be applied for two years, but companies would pay, circumventing the courts' objections.
The French football federation initially claimed it had received reassurances that clubs would not have to pay the tax as they were not considered "large businesses". But that was shot down by the government, which said: "The new system will apply to all businesses that pay salaries of more than one million euros (£850,000)," including football clubs.
Mr Moscovici's comments provide a fresh glimmer of hope for football clubs, although he did temper them by saying: "It will have to be a more general measure. It's not possible to do a measure for football clubs alone."
Football chiefs tentatively welcomed the comments. According to Le Figaro, an exemption could save clubs 82 million euros (£69 million), with the richest, Paris Saint Germain saving 32 million euros alone, Marseille 14.2 million euros and Lyon 12.5 million euros.
Philippe Diallo, general director of the French union of professional football clubs said: "The government appears to have heard the warning messages from French football." He told Le Figaro: "Still, we remain very cautious as these declarations are worth clarifying, as the tax rules keep changing." In a parliamentary report published in June, Régis Juanico, a Socialist MP, suggested that the tax should only apply to clubs "over a certain turnover so as not to weaken the already precarious (financial) equilibrium of football clubs." But sports economist Christophe Lepetit warned: "Football's image, which was hardly great, risks taking a knock if clubs don't pay this tax." According to Les Echos, the financial daily, the French government's millionaire's tax will only be imposed this year and in 2014, rather than in 2014 and 2015, as previously expected.
The largely symbolic levy is expected to only affect a little over 1,000 taxpayers, raising a minimal amount of revenue as part of the government's efforts to slash the budget deficit.