But this solution raises not all obstacles

"The retention of tax at source is a technique, not a reform." In an interview with le Monde dated Tuesday, the first Secretary of the PS, François Hollande, attempts to minimize the impact of the announcement, in "Les Echos" yesterday, the Minister of economy and finance, Thierry Breton, who now holds a press conference. In the Socialist project, taxation at the source is, indeed, only a component of a broader reform, the fusion of the tax (IR) and the generalized social contribution (CSG) in a unique and progressive levy. This is not the intention of the UMP. However, alone, the project to impose the tax directly on the map of pay of employees, the fees of the independent or the pension of the pensioners, would lead changes that make it a heavy reform. For example, it begins the concept of "tax home", a basic unit of our contributory system. The following main objectives, modalities and consequences of a tax at source.

Why collect

in the source

The first objective of a tax levy "real-time" is better stick to the situation of individuals, which is significant when their professional or personal situation evolves. With the current system, in which the tax is collected in the year following the formation of income, it may take up to 18 months between the gain and tax regulation. This period accentuates the difficulties of people who found themselves in the meantime in a precarious situation: an employee who lost his job, farmer victim of a bad harvest, surviving spouse after the death of her husband... The deduction at source "is also another report at the time," theorizes Thierry Breton. The second objective is to take a further step towards a paperless tax, after the Declaration by Internet and automatic payment and the mensualization. More accessory, the third objective of the reform is to further reduce the number of officers of taxes, 1,500 according to Bercy, since it is the employers who will collect the tax. However, according to our information, the same result, in terms of personnel, can be obtained by simply making mandatory the monthly levy.

How to collect

in the source

The immediate imposition of income faces the complexity of the French tax system, which combines not only several slices and rates, but also a family quotient and many tax niches. It begins on the protection of the confidentiality of personal data to the employer, those, in particular relating to other income. The solution devised by Bercy is to not pass to the employer as a tax rate, that of the household tax, to apply it to the net salary after payment of a part of the CSG and social contributions. But this solution raises not all obstacles. The first obstacle is that the weight of the tax cuts will avoid not important year-end adjustments, by the tax authorities. What makes say to a senior official that "the withholding will be down to the source". The second obstacle is the confidentiality of the data, because, through the tax rate, the employer will be informed on the income of the spouse of the employee. Finally, third obstacle: the year of transition. Thierry Breton proposes not imposing income 2008 (but well in 2008, 2007, and 2009 in 2009). But, in order to avoid opportunistic behavior, the State will hardly "launder" the 2008 revenues.

What consequences

withholding at source

The first effect of the deduction at source is to question, in practice, the notion of tax home. Today, a household pays his tax jointly and severally, free him to distribute the tax burden. With the levy at source, finished small arrangements between spouses: the State imposes its own distribution directly from take the tax on the payroll of each spouse, in proportion to the rate of taxation of the home. The imposition becomes individual. Far from being trivial, the second effect is to reduce significantly the last line of the pay sheet, net salary, which will now be net of tax. This will not be without the psychological impact, which relativizes the fears of those who fear that the tax does not become painless... To the tax authorities, a third effect of the deduction at source will be to facilitate the fight against tax fraud.