Tax Freedom Day: "The government should be ashamed that we work so hard for it."
It's finally "tax freedom" day . Since July 18th, the French are finally working for themselves, freed from the fiscal burden of taxes, duties, and other compulsory levies. France is the European champion in this area, ahead of Belgium, where Tax Freedom Day arrived two days earlier.
Concretely, for every 100 euros earned, a single French worker without children pays an average of 56 euros and puts 44 directly into their own pocket, according to the Molinari Institute, which ranks France as the highest tax burden in Europe. Smoothed out over the year, this means that they only start to benefit from today, July 18th. Before that, it's for the state.
Figures that raise doubts for lawyer Charles Consigny this Friday on the set of Les Grandes Gueules : "I think that 'Nicolas who pays' will have his tax exemption date in October. Before that, he will work for the community," he believes.
"What's really costing France the most is the aging of the population," the lawyer added on RMC and RMC Story . "We're paying because there's a general waste, because we pay for pensions and social security, where we're feeling the weight of the aging of the population."
"We need an economic, fiscal, and cultural revolution. We'll see if we can make it happen or not," adds Charles Consigny. The lawyer believes his day of release will likely be around December 20th: "In this country, there are cash cows in a system that won't reform."
Who is "Nicolas who pays"?
"Nicolas who pays" is the personification popularized by the right and the extreme right , of a thirty-year-old French employee without children who does not benefit from any aid and, through his taxes, bears the weight of the debt and social benefits that some receive.
The trademark "Nicolas qui paie" was even registered with the INPI (National Institute of Industrial Property) by Erik Tegnér, publication director of the far-right media outlet Frontières.
RMC
