Calling Depardieu

Bring out the Dom Perignon, the Gerard Depardieu tax is dead. In 2012, France’s President Francois Hollande had unveiled his “super tax” for the rich, which meant that those earning over one million euros a year had to pay 75 per cent of their income. Not surprisingly, the tax proved to be quite de trop for many of France’s rich and famous. Actor Depardieu bought a lot of cheese and then took up Russian citizenship. Football teams threatened to go on strike. France earned the reputation of being “Cuba without the sun”. Now that even Cuba shows signs of going libre, warming up to the US after decades, the French government must be feeling a bit passe. So it’s the guillotine for the super tax.

The more simple-minded would argue that the French government lifted the tax because it didn’t work. Some of the super rich fled into the gleeful arms of Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Most high-earners had their salaries limited for two years, at the end of which they would come to a discreet “arrangement” with their companies. Returns on the tax dwindled from 260 million euros in 2013 to 160 million euros in 2014, not nearly enough to plug a public deficit of 84.7 billion euros.

But what is economic good sense compared to the taunts of those barbaric, warm-beer swilling, mint-sauce purveying philistines, les Anglais? Back in 2012, British Prime Minister David Cameron, though morally outraged by local tax evaders, promised to “roll out the red carpet” for France’s poor persecuted rich. Even as the Hollande government sniffed that “French bosses” were “patriots”, the UK saw a 30 per cent rise in enquiries for expensive homes. It was not to be borne. So it was in London this October that the French prime minister confirmed to businessmen the tax would not be renewed. Creme anglaise for dessert, anyone?