French left proposes wealth taxes and a 12 million euro inheritance cap

Proposals to restrict billionaire wealth

La France Insoumise lawmakers stepped up their campaign against high net worth individuals following statements at their party summer gathering. Group president in the National Assembly Mathilde Panot stated on Tuesday, 25 August, during an interview with RMC-BFMTV that the wealthy have chosen to separate themselves from national solidarity. Her remarks followed an address by Member of the European Parliament Manon Aubry, who argued that billionaires should be banned and described them as harmful. Panot argued that the wealthiest individuals acquired their assets primarily through inheritance rather than personal merit.

Most of the rich did not deserve to be billionaires, they just had the merit of being born with a silver spoon and are by an immense majority super heirs.

Panot cited social statistics to support the party position, noting that 960 people died while living on the street in 2025, including an infant aged 11 days. She contrasted these fatalities with the fortunes of the 500 wealthiest French individuals, which she stated doubled over ten years under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron. Finance Commission President Éric Coquerel added on LCI that the fundamental problem lies in the structural imbalance of wealth distribution and the tax system.

The France Insoumise fiscal platform

The fiscal program presented by Panot relies on several targeted wealth redistribution mechanisms. The party plans to impose an absolute cap on inheritances, proposing that the state collect all assets exceeding 12 million euros. For income taxation, the platform introduces 14 tax brackets designed to reduce the tax burden on individuals earning less than 4,000 euros per month. The party also plans to restore the solidarity tax on wealth and implement the Zucman tax, which imposes a 2% minimum annual levy on wealth surpassing 100 million euros.

If we want to be clear in a society where we put things back the right way, it is that we should not just tax the rich but ban billionaires.

Panot also addressed potential tax emigration resulting from these proposed rates. She stated that the party would implement a differential tax system to pursue French citizens who relocate abroad to avoid domestic taxation. The party maintains that these measures aim at structural redistribution rather than penalizing wealthy pensioners.

Competing taxation plans across the left

Other political and labor organizations on the French left presented differing mechanisms to tax wealth and income. Socialist Party primary candidate Philippe Brun adopted the 4,000-euro monthly income benchmark, originally established by François Hollande in 2007, as the threshold for reducing the CSG tax to boost net wages. The Zucman tax on fortunes over 100 million euros has also been incorporated across several left-wing party platforms. Place publique leader Raphaël Glucksmann announced his presidential candidacy on Sunday, 23 August, with an alternative inheritance tax model.

Glucksmann stated that two-thirds of French wealth currently derives from inheritance while one-third comes from work, an exact reversal of the ratio recorded 50 years ago. He proposed a tax targeting the top 1% of inheritances, with the projected revenues intended to fund a 15 billion euro reduction in employee payroll contributions. Trade union leadership also entered the fiscal debate, with CFDT Secretary General Marylise Léon urging left candidates to tax inheritances starting from the very first euro. Léon stated that the top 1% of earners in France currently pay proportionally less tax relative to their income than average citizens.