Want to Pay 100 Percent Tax? Move here!

In socialist France, you can actually pay taxes MORE than you earn.

More than 8,000 French households found this out the hard way as their tax bills topped 100 percent of their income last year, the business newspaper Les Echos reported on Saturday, citing Finance Ministry data.

The anomaly, according to the newspaper, was due to a one-off levy last year on 2011 incomes for households with assets of more than 1.3 million euros ($1.67 million).

This tax surcharge was implemented last year as one of the first acts of socialist President Francois Hollande’s government plan. His predecessor wanted to cap an individual’s overall tax at 50 percent of income.

As for those who got taxed OVER 100 percent, help is on the way.

The government has been forced to redraft a proposed bill to levy a temporary 75 percent tax on earnings over 1 million euros, which had been one of Hollande’s campaign pledges. So the rich French now get to keep 25 percent of their earnings! And then France will grab most of that 25% with surcharges and other taxes.

The Constitutional Council has declared such a high rate of taxation unfair, leaving the government to rehash “l’impôt” to hit companies, rather than individuals. According to Les Echos, a top administrative court has determined that a marginal tax rate higher than 66.66 percent on a single household risked being considered confiscatory by the council.

Liberals in America would like us to debate whether or not taxing at 67 percent is confiscatory. How would you like to have 2/3rd of your income confiscated, so you are left with only 1/3 to pay additional fees, surcharges, luxury taxes, and sales taxes?

Les Echos reported that nearly 12,000 households paid taxes last year worth more than 75 percent of their 2011 revenues due to the exceptional levy. ($1 = 0.8 euros).

Translated: There are about 12,000 families paying for the indulgences of the lazy French.

To read more by Kevin Jackson, visit TheBlackSphere.net.