9 billion instead of the planned billion

Last year, to complete the 2006 social security budget, the Government had found a tip: anticipate the perception of social security payments (CSG, DRES, etc.) on housing as ten years savings schemes, whereas previously, they were due to the outcome of the plan. This measure proved miraculous because she reported EUR 1.9 billion, instead of the planned billion. Other side of the coin: it have almost top of nothing in 2007. Hence the need to find a successor to the "old" PEL. This product has been identified as early as the spring by the Government, this is the life ("Les Echos" from June 9).

Social security payments, which now account for 11, are already collected at 31 December of each year for contracts in euros ("mono-support"), on the amount of interest credited to the account. But this is not the case for so-called contracts Office, which include several floors: a fund there still in euros (paid by a rate) but also funds consisting of shares and bonds. Social security payments are collected until the outcome of the contract. However, these contracts Office took off at the end of the 1990s and more than ever the wind. Hence the idea of the Government to anticipate social security payments, not on the hand actions (whose evolution can be positive or negative depending on the year), but on the first floor of the contracts Office, denominated in euro. Social security payments in respect of the interests produced in 2006 by whole Contracting Office could represent 1.4 billion euros. And this amount would reach up to 5 billion taking also into account the interests of the previous years, a figure revealed yesterday by "Le Figaro".

Practical problems

The Government, it is however not question beyond 2007, the compensation of the end of the old PEL, or about 2 billion revenue. This would keep margins of manoeuvre for the following years. But one thing is sure, the Government is confident that he can hardly do without such manna to significantly reduce the social security deficit under 10.3 billion this year. Especially since, as the PEL, the measure is relatively painless, since it is not a new tax, but the anticipation of an existing collection.

It nevertheless raises significant practical and legal problems, currently pointed by Bercy: measuring changes already contracts between financial institutions and their customers (with retroactive effects), and if the insured has realized in fine of the whole of the mpt contract losses, the State will have to refund the overpayment of social security payments, which requires an engineering more complex than in the case of the old PEL. The Government had further given a reverse signal, last year, facilitating the conversion of the contracts in euros in contracts Office (Fourgous Amendment). The French Federation of insurance (FFSA) companies also requested explanations, yesterday, to the Government.

Two samples in the study

More recipes, new this time, are also under study. The most successful track concerns the creation of a "nutritional tax" (see below). A Budget working group has selected two samples possible practically and having meaning in terms of public health: a tax on sugary drinks could yield EUR 220 million per year, which would add a "snack products" tax (confectionery, candy bars, chips). Arbitrations on revenue measures, however, should not intervene before re-entry, the time for the Government, find new savings on expenses, insurance in particular.