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French Senate Blocks Forced Loan on Wealthy, Rewrites Key Taxes as 2026 Budget Fight Deepens

The property-tax revaluation pause narrows the government's revenue options ahead of December's votes.

Overview

  • Senators from the right–centre majority opposed the Socialist plan for a zero‑interest “forced loan” on roughly 20,000 top taxpayers, prompting sponsor Patrick Kanner to withdraw the amendment.
  • Under the shelved proposal, households with taxable income above €1 million or net wealth over €10 million would have lent to the state for three to five years without interest.
  • Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu suspended the 2026 property‑tax base update until spring, a move that would have affected about 7.4 million homes and roughly €460 million in local revenue.
  • The upper house drastically narrowed the planned tax on holding companies to a list of luxury assets and lifted the rate to 20%, cutting expected yield to about €100 million from the government’s €1 billion target, according to Amélie de Montchalin.
  • The Senate also passed in first reading a partial overhaul of the real‑estate wealth tax, lifting the threshold to €2.57 million and excluding investment property, with the government warning it would raise about €600 million less than the current IFI as negotiations continue toward a 15 December vote.