US EditionFrench lawmakers add tax hike on multinationals to budget bill as tense talks continue
- On October 28, 2025, lawmakers in the Assemblée Nationale approved two surprise tax hikes on multinational companies with support from Marine Le Pen's far-right party and France Unbowed.
- The government increased a planned surtax on corporate profits by €6 billion to raise revenue and combat avoidance, advocates say.
- Lawmakers approved a global-revenue levy targeting multinationals' French turnover and doubled the digital tax to 6 percent from 3 percent for firms with global sales over €2 billion.
- Finance Minister Roland Lescure warned the measures could breach international tax treaties and harm France's investment reputation, while the conservative-controlled Senate or constitutional court may strike them down in coming weeks.
- Parliament's fragmentation has produced unpredictable alliances, with Macron-aligned MPs divided and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu relying on Socialist lawmakers since last year's snap elections.
25 Articles
25 Articles
Who can still argue that the Senate is of no use? Lionel Jospin, who in 1998 described the High Assembly as "the anomaly of democracy." More than twenty-five years later, no one serious would take up this slogan, moreover very demagogue. A veteran of the Palais du Luxembourg recently summed up the situation with a smile: "The Assembly is the draft; the Senate is the own!" Of course, there is no shortage of critics: a mode of voting deemed obsole…
In the face of the macronist oukases, the members of Boris Vallaud's group feel the agreement with the Lecornu government to give them between their fingers. Some now even call for the return of the 49-3 to tie the budget, with some "victory" inside.
The president of the deputies of the centrist group accuses the socialists of preventing the conditions for a compromise on the finance bill by 2026. For him, only 49.3 could now allow the government to propose an acceptable text.
To double the digital tax by targeting the Gafam, is to take the risk of a surge for our companies and of an immediate American response, for Nicolas Marques, of the Molinari Institute.
French lawmakers add tax hike on multinationals to budget bill as tense talks continue
France's deeply divided National Assembly voted through two amendments to next year's budget bill late Tuesday that would double an existing digital tax on global tech giants and establish a 25 percent minimum tax rate on profits made by multinationals based on their activities in France. The amendments could still be struck down in the conservative-controlled Senate.
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