I was wondering about my second post here for a long time until I heard about my home country's new budget for 2013 "Project de loi de finance" (yes, I am French ;-)
France has not been doing well for some time (whether with a left leaning or right leaning government) and this budget is pretty agressive in trying to reduce the public deficit. It is a realistic and tough project but as usual it increases taxes without looking at balancing it with reducing waste and redundancies.
The current government has been elected on the back of an anti-finance platform (at least in principle) and decided to tax capital gains the same way salaries are taxed. It could make sense at first but it "will be taxed heavier than art transactions, real estate investments, and public stock purchase" (see link to the original article from The Rude Baguette at the end of the post). Interesting and encouraging, isn't it? To put things in perspective, if you were to sell your company (drugstore, start-up, bookstore, etc.) after many years of hard labor for over 1M euros (it is not that much for a company), you would be taxed 45% + 15.5% of other taxes. A total of 60%! Imagine you want to sell your bookstore and are counting on the sale to enjoy your retirement... (and there are more "bookstores" being sold to retire than big start-up exits in France, for sure)
French entrepreneurs (it is a French word by the way, did you know?) spoke up saying enough is enough! They called themselves "les pigeons" (the suckers in slang) and explained that they were creating jobs and trying to make France a better place to be and that the government was just trying to clip their wings without consulting or trying to understand what impact they had on the economy. The movement took off on Facebook and Twitter and within a few days got up to 60,000 followers, and a lot of coverage in French and English medias. A surprised government tried to ignore them (naming them pawns of the opposition) but could not. Finally their representatives met the government and alternatives were found, and taxation made more appealing for entrepreneurs. The government listened and actually stood down. Well done les pigeons! It is refreshing to see people in my home country reacting and speaking their minds when one of the motors of the economy, and jobs, is attacked unjustly. They can be proud.
Everything is not perfect yet for the French economy but at least there is a bit of blue sky for French entrepreneurs and aspiring young ones. We always hear about entrepreneurs the world over except for the Hexagon, at least it starts to change. And it is music to my ears: who knows, if it continues like that I might even consider moving back and give it a try!
If you want to know more, you can check their web site www.defensepigeons.org (in French) or www.rudebaguette.com (in English). Also The Economist mentioned them recently, with an additional article on the upcoming budget. I will keep this updated as the situation evolves.
