The story appears on

Page A11

August 24, 2011

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » World

Tax us, plead France's super rich

Some of France's richest people, including the billionaire heiress of L'Oreal SA and the head of oil major Total SA, urged the government to tax them more to help solve the country's financial problems.

In a petition published on the website of magazine Le Nouvel Observateur yesterday, 16 company executives, business leaders and super-rich individuals called for the creation of a "special contribution" that would target wealth without forcing them to move to foreign tax havens.

The petition, whose signatories included L'Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt and Total chief Christophe de Margerie, follows a call by United States billionaire Warren Buffett for US authorities to raise taxes on himself and other high earners to contribute to austerity efforts.

President Nicolas Sarkozy is already planning to ax some tax exemptions that benefit the wealthy as he seeks some 5 billion euros (US$7.2 billion) to 10 billion in extra revenue in the 2012 budget following a market rout that has fuelled concern over French public finances.



 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend