France’s constitutional council has dealt a blow to beleaguered Socialist president François Hollande by rejecting the new 75% rate of income tax due to come into effect on Tuesday.
Clearly the spirit of the law is that Parliament wants that 75% to be paid and so everyone should do so.
But the Constitutional Council says that it’s against the letter of the law. For it is unfair.
Just what is a progressive supposed to do? Follow the spirit of the law or the letter of it?
Demand that in the name of fairness everyone must follow a law that has been declared and defined to be unfair?
5 responses so far ↓
1 bloke in spain // Dec 30, 2012 at 10:54 am
Shouldn’t think he’s an opinion about it, Tim.
What with it being Xmas an all, reckon him & his son must be too busy playing with that train set justifies him not being business rated on the converted garage he uses as an office. He wouldn’t be avoiding taxes, surely?
2 john miller // Dec 30, 2012 at 11:07 am
While you’re poking him with the French stick (sorry) you may remind him that the Laffer Curve is alive, well and being demonstrated by the hordes of Frenchies moving to London.
Mind you, Boris did tell them to “Venez a Londres, mes amis” so perhaps it’s just the effect of that…
3 Surreptitious Evil // Dec 30, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Who really cares?
They’re French. They do weird shit.
As long as they’re not being invaded by the Hun and keep up the wine and cheese production, all we really need to worry about avoiding are their dreadful movies (aka most of them).
4 FrankC // Dec 30, 2012 at 8:30 pm
The 75% tax was declared unfair because it targeted individuals whereas French income tax is targeted at the household income.
5 Dan // Dec 30, 2012 at 9:10 pm
funnily enough I see this the other way round – the letter of the law imposed a 75% tax, but the Constitutional Council thought it was against the spirit of French law, as it was contrary to the principle of fairness.
Tim adds: That works for me too. Do we obey the spirit of the law if it means lower taxation than hte letter? Is Ritchie’s insistence a two way thing?
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