Soccer Tax!? Soccer Tax.

[HuffingtonPost]

             

PARIS, April 2 (Reuters) - France's revamped 75 percent  super-tax on annual salaries above one million euros will apply  to all companies, officials in the prime minister's office said  on Tuesday, rejecting suggestions that soccer clubs would be  exempt.                

President Francois Hollande is redrafting his super-tax plan  to apply to firms paying the highest salaries after the  Constitutional Court rejected an initial plan to impose the levy  on individuals themselves.                

The policy, seen as a symbolic attempt to force the rich to  contribute to painful measures to pull France out of economic  crisis, suffered another potential setback on Monday when a top  French soccer official said clubs would not have to pay it.                

Noel le Graet, president of the French Football Federation,  said soccer clubs employing players on million-euro salaries  would be exempt from the tax because it would only apply to  businesses with more than 5,000 workers.                

But an official at Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's office  told reporters that was incorrect.                

"The new measure will affect all companies paying out  salaries above 1 million euros," he said, adding that no company  would be exempt, regardless of size.                

Details of exactly how the tax will work remain vague, but  officials said companies would pay a total adding up to 75  percent in tax - which includes all social fees - on the portion  of individuals' wages exceeding one million euros.                

A second official at Ayrault's office confirmed the tax  would apply to soccer clubs as well as employers of performers  such as actors and singers on company payrolls. It would apply  to small and medium-sized firms as well as larger ones.                

Les Echos business daily, citing finance ministry sources,  reported that the new tax could raise 500 million euros ($640  million) per year, double what the original version was set to  raise, although it should apply to just under 1,000 people as  against 1,500 for the initial plan.                                

OUTCRY OVER EXTRA BURDEN                

Hollande has caused outcry with the super-tax, promised in  his campaign for the May 2012 election, with leading figures  from sport, entertainment and finance arguing it would hurt  their ability to recruit top talent from around the world.                

Hollande says the tax, which is to stay in place for two  years as a temporary measure to help the country out of economic  gloom, is fair as the wealthy should bear a bigger burden in the  effort to bolster public finances.                

Top soccer clubs like Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain (PSG)  may be able to keep paying big salaries for stars like Zlatan  Ibrahimovic, but smaller clubs paying one or two stars more than  one million euros are seen as struggling with a bigger tax bill.                

"I don't think it's good for French football, it's not good  for French clubs and it's not good for the place of (France's)  Ligue 1 in the world," PSG chairman Nasser al-Khelaifi said on  France Info radio.                

Olympique Marseille head Vincent Labrune added: "Even if a  soccer club like Olympique Marseille has a bigger media profile  than a CAC-40 (blue-chip) company, we are still a medium-sized  provincial business.                

"We do not have the means to pay this tax," he told Reuters.                

The Socialist government is battling to raise extra revenue  and trim ministerial costs as it tries to bring the public  deficit below a European Union ceiling of three percent, having  admitted it will overshoot that target this year.                

Another proposal being examined is the possibility of  trimming family allowances for well-off families, the officials  said. Such a move could save several hundred million euros a  year if carried out, according to French media.   ($1 = 0.7784 euros)     (Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Nicholas Vinocur;  Editing by Catherine Bremer and Mike Collett-White)

Via: HuffingtonPost