This page has been archived and commenting is disabled.
Hollande's 'New' 75%-Wealth-Tax Catches French Soccer Pros Offside
The ever-changing rules of the French 'tax-the-rich' socialist state have mad eyet another unintended consequence. Bloomberg reports that Prime Minister Jean-March Ayrault confirmed this evening that France's professional soccer players will be liable for the 75% 'surcharge' on salaries above EUR1 million. After the country’s top administrative court said any rate above 66% could be rejected as confiscatory, Hollande revived the tax, saying the rate would remain 75%, though it would be paid by corporations, not individuals, circumventing the courts’ objections. That solution left open the question of whether self- employed artists and athletes would be taxed - Ayrault confirmed it today. We suspect the transfer window will be wide open as soon as possible as "with these crazy labor costs, France will lose its best players, our clubs will see their competitiveness in Europe decline, and the government will lose its best taxpayers." Paris St. Germain, David Beckham's current team, has over a dozen players/coaches paid more than EUR1mm and with Zlatan Ibrahimovic at EUR15mm per year, we suspect the Swede will be heading back to England as soon as possible - or maybe Cyprus needs some players?
Paris St. Germain, France’s richest soccer club, ...
PSG’s Qatari owners also have the tax man to think about. After conflicting messages by government officials, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault’s office issued a statement today confirming that a 75 percent surcharge on salaries above 1 million euros ($1.3 million) will apply to soccer clubs.
“This new tax will cost first-division teams 82 million euros,” France’s Football League said in a statement. “With these crazy labor costs, France will lose its best players, our clubs will see their competitiveness in Europe decline, and the government will lose its best taxpayers.”
At least 12 members of the Paris team make more than 1 million a year, according to France Football magazine. They include Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 15 million euros a year, and Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti, at 12 million euros.
...
Many soccer players would already be taxed at France’s top marginal rate of 49 percent, which kicks in at 500,000 euros a year. Teams would then pay a surcharge to bring the effective tax rate on salaries above 1 million euros to 75 percent.
Court Ruling
A first attempt to put the tax into law was shot down by the constitutional court last December because the tax applied to individuals and not households. While the government then said it would rewrite the tax for 2014, the country’s top administrative court said any rate above 66 percent could be rejected as confiscatory.
In a television interview last week, Hollande revived the tax, saying the rate would remain 75 percent, though it would be paid by corporations, not individuals, circumventing the courts’ objections.
...
In an interview with Journal du Dimanche March 31, Ayrault avoided the question, saying that some companies paid “indecent” salaries and joking that actor Gerard Depardieu, who has left France for Belgium, thought taxes are already too high in France.
»
- 12051 reads
- Printer-friendly version
- Send to friend
- advertisements -
While WW3 is about to kick off.
DEVELOPING: South Korea says North Korea hasn't allowed 446 South Korean workers to return home form the shared #Kaesong industrial zone
I like how humans aren't actually "humans" anymore. We are all just "taxpayers". In other words, livestock to be exploited by an authoritarian neo-aristocracy.
Blood bags to be exsanguinated.
Yeah...that's a thread killer...stupid brain.
Tyler(s)! IT'S 'FOOTBALL'... not fuckin' SOCCER'.
193 countries call it 'Football' and WTF, Amerka, Aoostralia, and Noo Zeeland call it fuckin' SOCCER.
Apart from that an amusingly ironic article.... finaly all of France can unite in full-scale rioting and a pathological hatred of Hollande the Socialist Sauce.
... good work!
If he wrote 'football' then all the Americans would be confused.
You didn't kick that.
Humans were never considered humans in the government eyes... they were always slaves. Why do you think they are calling it the ``human ressources department``?
People who went to work to Kaesong till this all began are suicidal.... they are now hostages... it was fucking obvious that would happen... but eh, governments and people love the old ``ignore it and it doesn't exist`` way of living...
in the government's eyes? and what about the megacorporation's eyes? I heard they have HR, too
The state needs to pay the bankers. Who cares if they get interest on money created from nothing.
How about bankers to be defenestrated? I like that better Sir!
Fuk with the country's big sports stars...
Now that should get the public's attention.
Also, we are not "patients" anymore...now "HMO clients" or "insureds."
At least (as Patrick McGoohan used to say) "I AM NOT A NUMBER !"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHiAZGlImMs
[Number Six is the central fictional character in the 1960s television series The Prisoner, played by Patrick McGoohan.]
+1,000 so appropriate in these troubling times...
The Iron Maiden original vid of the tune which paid homage to that classic 'dark' show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is2nSoqFRHU
Don't forget "human capital." Might as well call me livestock... baa baa. .Gov taxes the shit out of me and management thinks I'm expendable capital. I fucking hate them all.
edit: oops, lolmao500 already made my point. +1 for him.
anyone peak in on the metals lately...its not pretty.....
Yeap. Not pretty at all.
Bitcoin on the other hand, happens to be doing quite well....
Dont forget "valued customer" or "consumer," my personal fave.
+ dangerous move : destroying the Bread & Circus players
Will work for peanuts.
Unshelled please.
Salted or roasted? Sorry, honey mustard will cost extra.
Give it time, we may all be working for rations very soon.
Soccer players get randomly shot every game. They almost always bounce back though.
You said what about my sister?
Tennis anyone??
And fate is setting up the chessboard while death rolls out the dice.
Anyone for tennis, wouldn't the be nice?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfL5vBW4onU
I'd pop extra corn to see Zidane skull-thrust Hollande.
Damn!
Now I'll have to watch a zero zero tie that features crappy hundred thousand aires.
Not that I don't like the idea of the French being hoisted with their own petard, but...... oh, who am I kidding? I love this shit! The sweat, the angst, the drama, the desperation- and that's just the politicians.
Bullish for the Championship and SPL. Football is as big a charade as politics, right Paulo di Canio?
I'd run around until I puked for $1 million.
Might not be as effective, but I would win the crowd.
Maybe the only commenter to acknowledge that a million euros is more than enough to live really, really well on. The rest is disingenuous greed.
No bread AND no circuses soon?
tactical blunder!
And the moronic left-wing working classes will rejoice without realizing that nobody will invest in their rapacious country.
So the Soccer WAGs will now have to drive around in a Range Rover Sport instead of a Range Rover. Thank you Zero Hedge for informing me of their plight... oh the humanity. /sarc
Sounds like France is just like the rest of Europe and North America. The savers and makers vs the takers and the taxers. Savers of the world unite! ?
That seems to be the narrative and it couldn't be more hilarious that Russia appears to be among the most friendly to the responsible and productive.
This is their Gooooooaaaaaalllllllllllll !
Hollande will soon deserve a 3rd version of "Like a candle in the wind" sung by Elton John to comemorate the last flicker of socialism right in the middle of the worst recession in living history. More pathetic than romantic this time. Dinosaurs without the asteroid; just moldy ideas staying on a day too long.
Soccer, smocker, just another culture artifact swriling down the government drain...
Well, they shouldn't have cheated - bad karma!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awmGmjrvM1M&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Wayne Rooney joining PSG? ROFL
Le plan Hollande - une tartine de merde .... mais il n'y a pas assez de pain pour tout le monde!
When they came for 75% tax on rich soccer players in France, I didn't object.
+100 Yes, after the collapse, on the zero-hedge-short-wave-radio 'resistance' network this 'meme' will resurface.
However, it will be a challenge to handle the comments section. I hope the Tyler's are working on such contingency planning as we type.
I do not know the tax law in France, but i think that the players pay taxes in the country that hosts the game. If so games maybe scheduled with an eye to taxes. If a french team is playing a German team it may be the better idea to play in Germany. World cup matches would likely not be in France. There are big bucks in hotels, food, travel, and jobs on that line.
"any rate above 66% could be rejected as confiscatory"
How can a court, responsible for interpreting a higher law possibly make such a moronic determination. Only a dictator can make these decisions. Good thing 65% is not confiscatory but 67% is. This is the kind of stupidity courts are intended to protect us against.
Where did you get the idea that courts were intended to protect us against stupidity? Lower courts are intended to generate revenue and high courts are intended to protect the status quo. You ever have a traffic ticket dismissed? You are still assessed court costs, which may exceed the fine you avoided.
Anyone with a bank or trading account anywhere on earth needs to clean it out. NOW, if not sooner.
This makes no difference to most of the PSG players - they have a fixed salary NET of tax. See here http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2012/jul/21/zlatan-ibrahimovic-psg-ta...
Soccers!
Soccers!
Back to England? Zlatan has never played in England...
If only every country would tax footballers at 75%, we might eventually have a game inhabited by decent footballers, instead of celebrity seeking, pathetic, prima donnas.
Without being a d**k, the only country Zlatan hasn't played in is England. He has played for Ajax (Holland), Juventus (Italy), Barcelona (Spain), Inter Milan (Italy), AC Milan (Italy), and now Paris St. Germaine (France)... You guys are just too ridiculously smug sometimes and this is just another example of how increasingly your comments are not only arrogant and pompous, but factually wrong and incorrect...
"with Zlatan Ibrahimovic at EUR15mm per year, we suspect the Swede will be heading back to England as soon as possible"
They'll just all go to England - the football is better there, anyways.
Fuck that soccer should be tax free like combat pay should be tax free