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Draconian Cash Controls Are Coming To France

testosteronepit's picture




 

Wolf Richter   www.testosteronepit.com   www.amazon.com/author/wolfrichter

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault himself presided over Monday’s meeting of the National Anti-Fraud Committee—“a first for a head of government,” he said at the press conference afterward, to hammer home just how important this was. But he wasn’t worried about run-of-the-mill fraud that might fleece some old lady of her life savings. He was worried about people not paying their taxes.

He is desperate. In its just released annual report, France’s state auditor, the Cour des Comptes, told the government that it was dreaming. Its forecast of 0.8% growth for 2013 was way high. Try 0.3%. And forget about the budget deficit target of 3% of GDP, which had been based on that illusory 0.8% growth. And even if growth came in at 0.8%, the deficit would still be above that all-important 3%.

To get to the deficit target, the government had raised a slew of taxes to extract another €32 billion this year from households and businesses that are already gasping for air. Now “absolute priority” must be on bringing down spending, admonished Didier Migaud, First President of the Cour des Comptes, when he presented the report.

But spending cuts—whether corporate welfare projects or social programs—would be highly unpopular. Hence, the government’s emphasis on fighting tax fraud. Some estimates put tax fraud in the range of €60 to €80 billion per year, others at half that. Either way, a free gift. If the government could just get its hands on that money.

So Ayrault trotted out his national plan, a 20-page document that outlined his all-out effort to go after any kind of behavior that could possibly deprive the government of those sorely needed euros. A seamless fit for France’s principle: squeeze hapless “fiscal residents” like lemons to get their last drop of juice—fiscal residents, because citizens or foreigners who live in France only part of the year and pay taxes in some other country escape income taxes in France.

Stuffed into that 20-page national plan is a draconian tool: prohibiting cash payments of over €1,000 per purchase. The current threshold is €3,000. It’s urgent. He wants to get the process started soon so that “a decree and legislative measures” can be finished by the end of 2013.

Two crisp 500-euro bills and a single coin: voilà, an illegal transaction. OK, most cash transactions fall below that limit. But used cars, for example, might not. Between individuals, a cash transaction protects the seller. Otherwise, a trustworthy girl buys your car, signs the documents, hands you a check or initiates an electronic payment, and drives off. By the time you realize that the check bounced or that the electronic transfer didn’t go through, the car is on its way to Russia.

But the limit would only apply to fiscal residents. In a nod toward the wealthy and not so wealthy that the government has driven into fiscal exile, Ayrault included an exception: people, citizens or not, who are fiscal residents of a country other than France would be able to pay €10,000 in cash per purchase, down from the current €15,000 limit.

It will doubtlessly be called the “Depardieu exception.” Iconic actor Gérard Depardieu sought to establish a residence across the border in Belgium to escape the oppressive taxes at home [“Trench Warfare” Or “Civil War” Over Confiscatory Taxes In France]. Then suddenly, he obtained a Russian passport, a “defection” that caused a whirlwind of anger, derision, support, and laughs. But Russia does have a flat 13% income tax.

People like him, when they’re in France, will still be able to pay for high-end girls in cash. The rest must use another payment method, anything from smartphones to checks. But they leave indelible electronic skid marks. Companies that process the payments retain personal and transaction details that form a seamless record over time. And copies of these details are handed to the government, either upon request or automatically.

With this law, the French government will be able to tighten the vise on its people one more turn, restricting their freedom of choice (how to pay), wiping out any privacy in those transactions, and imposing another layer of government control. Once people have gotten used to the €1,000 limit—based on the great principle of incrementalism with which restrictions of freedom come to pass in democracies—the vise will be tightened further, until the government can document every purchase made by “fiscal residents.”

And here is the principle of Regulatory Capture: “Former employees of the SEC routinely help corporations influence SEC rulemaking, counter the agency’s investigations, soften the blow of SEC enforcement actions, and win exemptions from federal law.” A damning report on how Wall Street insiders rotate in and out of the SEC—until Wall Street culture and personalities dominate the agency. Regulation and enforcement become a joke. Read....  Wall Street Takes Over Its Regulator.

 

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Wed, 02/13/2013 - 17:46 | 3241255 monad
monad's picture

You can if the head of the company is CFR.
I mean no cash at all, wall to wall EBT. With tx fees.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 21:16 | 3241665 Stuntgirl
Stuntgirl's picture

Ugh. I know.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 14:12 | 3240641 LukeWorm
LukeWorm's picture

Between individuals there is really no problem. Nothing declared anyway. Business-to-business and business-to-consumer will be affected, but even there, why woudl it be a problem?  Of course, you Americans are used to briefcases full of greenbacks, but over here in Europe things are different. Except on the criminal side, naturally.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 14:26 | 3240670 walküre
walküre's picture

How are things different in Europe? Does the European money fairy magically reload all those electronic bank accounts so the consumer can never run out of e-cash?

The one thing Europeans should have learned by now is NOT to trust the banks with their money. Take it out and stash it at home or better yet convert it to PMs. When all the banks fail in a cascade like effect, there is no reloading from any central bank the next time around. You have as much as you hold right there in your hand. Everything else is gone and won't be replaced until a reset is figured out and deposits will be "honored" at cents on the Euro.

The banks are knee deep in shyte and way over leveraged. Right now all hope is with the ECB and Draghi. Just because they can print, doesn't mean they will print. And if they decide to print massively, do you really want to sit on cash in a bank account that's going to decrease in value from one hour to the next?

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 14:12 | 3240640 q99x2
q99x2's picture

Tell French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault to get a fucking real job as a machinist, a plumber. Have that panzi drive a bus for a year or run a jack hammer. He needs locked up that son-of-a-bitchez. Roll out the guillotines. 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:35 | 3241501 willwork4food
willwork4food's picture

Nothing new under the sun. The slimeballs in the US Senate & Congress are no less charming.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 14:06 | 3240626 Quinvarius
Quinvarius's picture

Gold and silver for the win.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 15:03 | 3240763 hazek
hazek's picture

And bitcoins.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 16:24 | 3241018 phalfa5
phalfa5's picture

and bitcoins   /sarc    there  fixed for ya

 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 17:46 | 3241251 TraderTimm
TraderTimm's picture

"What is this, a USB Drive?" the border patrolman asked.

"Yes, I use it for a few documents that I need."

He glared at it, but gave it back. I then crossed the border with my stored wallet, containing over $100,000 in BTC.

------

"Why do you have gold hidden in your bag?" the border patrolman asked, calling another armed guard over

I had nothing to say, it was foolish of me to think I could've gotten by carrying physical across the border. I tried not to do anything rash, as the other guard took my gold for "safekeeping", pending an investigation. I was pretty sure I would never see it again.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:14 | 3241336 whotookmyalias
whotookmyalias's picture

Then I arrived at my destination and tried to exchange the bitcoins for currency, goods, and services.  I was given a picture of a 500 Euro bill, a picture of a house, and a picture of a baugette.  I smiled, realizing I had fooled them all, as I sipped on a picture of a cup of coffee.

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 15:05 | 3243789 TraderTimm
TraderTimm's picture

"We will do everything we can to solidify and support our currency at home and abroad." WhoTookMyAlias smiled, content that the Treasury and the political leaders of the day would prevent loss of faith in the dollar. Switching off the TV and flopping to sleep, he smiled over the post he put up the other day about bitcoin. "Hah, like that will help anyone, lol".

Morning, sunlight streaming through blinds. Fumbling for the remote, WTMA switched on the news as the coffee maker gurgled to life, a caffeine cascade into the rounded pot below.

"... and at this time, it isn't certain what other steps will be taken, but we've received word that the US Dollar will be 'redenominated' by 40%, to help contain costs of our national debt - helping taxpayers at year's end"

WTMA spit out his coffee, thinking of a bank balance that has now been devalued by almost half. Those bastards, they really did it this time. Scuffing of feet, running down to the place in the basement where his gold was stored. Where can I go, what am I going to do? After securing a bag large enough to put the bars and coins in, he huffed and panted up the stairs, dumping it in the kitchen, the dense bars denting the thin linoleum floor.

Looking at the bag, with its reinforced stitching, the large straps straining to contain the precious metals within. A quick glance to his laptop on the table, where he could've been transferring all his wealth into the ether, no bags, no fear of being found - just moved across the globe in an hour, not days.

"Shit... those bitcoin people may have been on to the right thing after all."

The ignored coffee pot gurgled again, as WTMA stared at his stash, glittering and resplendent under the beams of sunlight flooding the room. That feeling, same as a dream running from a monster that you can never quite get ahead of, probing dark tendrils of fear into his heart.

"Dammit.... godammit...."

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 00:04 | 3242092 Half_A_Billion_...
Half_A_Billion_Hollow_Points's picture

 

 

if you think bitcoin is not going to succeed, you're in for a surprise.  

 

They can't short bitcoin and it's 238 times more scarse than gold; that's why the price has been rising like a rocket.  You needed more than 300bitcoins to get an ounce of gold last year, now you need less than 70.

By the end of the year, the price of bitcoin will easily surpass the price of an ounce of silver.

In 2013, there will be less bitcoin produced than people living in San Diego.  Think about this for a minute.  

If you study the paranoid cryptography behind it, you'll see that they will never be able to break the three layers of security.  Maybe they'll break ONE layer (which can be updated), but not the three layers.

Finally, most Zerohedge headlines, just like this one, could be completed with "bitcoin users not affected".  

Bitcoin is complementary to gold and silver.  

It is one tool in our arsenal; dismissing it could be a big mistake.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:46 | 3240578 Nation of Imbeciles
Nation of Imbeciles's picture

“Fiscal residents” seems too polite a term versus the more realistic pejorative "Revenue-producing Insects."

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:38 | 3241385 SokPOTUS
SokPOTUS's picture

Huh.  Polite French.  Imagine that.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 15:26 | 3240840 Cap Matifou
Cap Matifou's picture

Taxation aims the remolding of society, not revenue, said one precedessor of the Bernank.
Taxes for Revenue are Obsolete
http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/RUMLTAXES.html

 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:28 | 3241492 847328_3527
847328_3527's picture

'remolding society....'

 

yeah, that McMansion over there....it belongs to us!...so open 'er up to the Hoi Poloi !!!!

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:44 | 3240574 Son of Loki
Son of Loki's picture

Two things will be harder and harder to get out of these countries--cash and a house. It is dog-gone hard to carry a house across the border.   RE and pension plans are easy pickings for the gubbermint.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:41 | 3240568 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

I'm sure all the French drug dealers will obey.Talking of crooks,I'm

sure all the  banks will comply as well.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:40 | 3240566 marathonman
marathonman's picture

The fucking Frogs are pathetic. 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:56 | 3240598 falak pema
falak pema's picture

their fucking is getting pathetically frantic as the government turns the inquisitorial screw on them. 

Thank heaven for small mercies; as we will pay more in taxes, show our fiscal asses bare-butted to please government, as the incremental screw turns tighter, we will burn more in fucking frog juices. 

Its gets pathetic when our dikks drop off like for those crazy fishes and we don't get to grow a new one like they do...

Now that should be entirely reimbursed by the social security, given our handsome subscriptions. 

'Extremely Peculiar' Sea Animal Has Disposable Penis - Business Insider

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 14:22 | 3240662 Freddie
Freddie's picture

What about those European banking families?  They always seem to move around as they screw countries and start wars for profit.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 15:46 | 3240723 falak pema
falak pema's picture

its called noblesse oblige; when you've been doing it since the Crusades, when you've invented the 'monk-banker-soldier' Templar breed, you feel you have a 2000 year trademark cum patent, we call it droit d'auteur, on that privileged status.

You can pooh-pooh the world, especially those whose history began in 1776...and tell them, "you've just learned a few tricks while we've forgotten twice as many since those halcyon days..." But then came June 18, 1815 and it was full stop to all that.

Until it rebegan in Algeria. And went second best to Rule Britannia. So we invented 'human rights at home and your slavery abroad' meme, something the US does very well today in similar hyper hypocrisy.

Those Euro banking families grew in Italy as servants of french nobility in holy land, merchant shipping states, then became bankers at home during the Champagne fairs. We even exported our expertise to the FED!

But since 1945 it looks like the US has played catch up ball pretty well. The 'piece de resistance' being the greenback and petrodollar combination : our money your problem; but we devalue it and thats too bad for you. 

France only now excels in hanky panky in Africa; its lost all the rest to US hegemony.

 

 

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 00:50 | 3242214 Dooud
Dooud's picture

Umberto Eco ..... Man.......Umberto Eco

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 00:15 | 3242123 TNTARG
TNTARG's picture

But since 1945 it looks like the US has played catch up ball pretty well.

WHO owns the FED?

http://www.save-a-patriot.org/files/view/whofed.html

It seems the U.S.S.A. have been doing the dirty work for the european families and taking all the blame meanwhile Europe was being considered the World's cultural Mecca.

I was thinking... In different ways european elite has been using us all. Now, as they do periodically, they're attacking their own citizens (vassals?).

While the US were thinking of us Latin Americans as their courtyard, we were all treated and considered colonies. 

I'd like a NWO all right, not the OLD barbarian one.

P.S.: I was born in Latin America, daughter of italians. Though I have the European citizenship I choose to be Latinoamericana.

 

 

 

 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:21 | 3241470 Clowns on Acid
Clowns on Acid's picture

falak - understood with "noblesse oblige" however methinks that you are going all too much "Dan Brown" on us here.

Looking at the owners of the US Fed ...they don't seem to be 'monk-banker-soldier' Templar breed".

The 1st President of the ECB was Wim Duisenberg - atheist.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:50 | 3241496 falak pema
falak pema's picture

just saying that the CIA/WS Banker model is the Templar model that GWB /clash of civilization has resuscitated.

Our NWO has many similarities with that age. Our materialistic God  today is  the Greenback, his doctrine is the "invisible hand of the market' economy; our Pope the FED head.

The king and the Pope then, in the face of Templar arrogance and military defeat, had to sacrifice those Elites who had gotten too rich, The TBTF of that age, the best n the brightest, in the bonfire of 1314! It's Ironic that the Templars had been fathered by that very french lineage of kings and also by Bernard of Clairvaux, top ideologue of the Papal church. Those who created them as guardians not only of Temple but of the silk and spice routes, the real thing,  burned them subsequently AS THEY HAD GOTTEN DANGEROUS TO BOTH PILLARS; rings a bell! 

Can't help it if history repeats again! 

Dan Brown was about BLOOD line. My rant is about geopolitical repeat performance of world hegemony. 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 16:47 | 3241088 tango
tango's picture

France fell because of "US hegemony"?  Jesus Christ, it's getting deep in here.   How about France failed because she adopted socialism as the state religion, stopped having kids, passed absurd work/vacation rules, allowed millions of immigrants that refused to integrate, let the unions run things and  entered that irreversabile slide down hill?   Maybe it's the inevitable democratization of power as third world nations take advantage of Western technology to skip several generation.  I like France, my wife lived there and we've been several times but the French (like the rest of Europe) are now concentrating on managing their decline gracefully. 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:01 | 3241281 falak pema
falak pema's picture

france fell since June 18 1815, and then in fallout of WWI and WW2...

Don't blur history. USA rose since 1945...that's the time line. Go read history.

I leave your belief in antisocialism finding its denouement in the current untwirling of market hyper liberalism going virally state controlled. 

Go figure that out. The world is round, like human nature; those who think its flat are in for some surprises as they circumvate its equator to come face to face with their miror opposites; only to find its themselves. 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:08 | 3241321 whotookmyalias
whotookmyalias's picture

The decline in France apparently comes from the same playbook the the Liberals in the US are following.  Crush the middle class, vilify the "rich", make people more dependent on Govt for handouts and controls, then as things go downhill, preach the need for higher taxes and furhter gubbiment controls.  If all else fails, abolish paper currency and track the electronic transactions to ensure no one is actually benefiting. If the people complain, stage some sort of violence to justify a crack down on indpendent thought.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:47 | 3241519 falak pema
falak pema's picture

you are "circumvating" like me! You should "circumvent" my rant! 

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 13:34 | 3240548 TahoeBilly2012
TahoeBilly2012's picture

How many Euro's for a white flour croissant? Zero food value.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:41 | 3241390 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

white flour croissant

on the black market

how fun!! We have not had a black market here in the USA since Prohibition (unless you count drugs)

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 16:03 | 3240955 TerminalDebt
TerminalDebt's picture

It's gonna be fun and games when inflation sends the price of bread to 1100 Euros for a Loaf.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 20:59 | 3241635 Buck Johnson
Buck Johnson's picture

Yep and we in the US will be next.  And remember most of us in the US have been drinking the Kool-aid of exceptionalism.  And when that delusion falls they will go insane.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 23:36 | 3242038 DoChenRollingBearing
DoChenRollingBearing's picture

Yesterday was a great time to get some money out of your "country of residence" assuming you have an acceptable place to go to.  NOW is better than "tomorrow".  Who knows how much time we have left, maybe a little, maybe this is all nothing for us (USA) to worry about.

If you cannot (or do want to) leave, then I would suggest gold and silver.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 17:02 | 3241131 Cap Matifou
Cap Matifou's picture

Or reaching the levels of the ole Lira, and taking a piss will costs 2000,-

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 17:22 | 3241177 espirit
espirit's picture

I bid 2001 to piss on Ben.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 18:02 | 3241307 whotookmyalias
whotookmyalias's picture

That will teach the rich people to move away to avoid taxes.  Just track EVERYONE and then we'll see who wins the war of wills.

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:34 | 3241500 boogerbently
boogerbently's picture

Why doesn't our govt. understand this?

Eliminating fraud in entitlement programs would add more revenue than raising taxes.

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 03:47 | 3242411 Boris Alatovkrap
Boris Alatovkrap's picture

Q: How many food stamp is to screw incandescent bulb?

A: 47 Million is wait for help but no one is lift finger.

Thu, 02/14/2013 - 08:05 | 3242571 NoDebt
NoDebt's picture

I wonder if somebody will begin to mint a 999 Euro gold coin?

 

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