For this apparent necessity could be bypassed

It is, recently, a rare subject of consensus between responsible for the UMP and PS. For some as for others, merge the tax (IR) and the generalized social contribution (CSG) would make the tax system more fair and more readable. Around this simple observation are men like the President of the UMP in the National Assembly group, Jean-François Copé, the rapporteur of the commission of the Senate Finance, Philippe Marini, (UMP), former Secretary of the Socialist Party, Francois Hollande, or Deputy-Mayor of Evry, the Socialist Manuel Valls. The proposal to bring together two samples - a proportionate, and the other progressive - is becoming a hyphen between a modernist left and a progressive right. In appearance only. Because, as the idea came from one or the other side, the objectives are not quite the same.

Jean-François Copé, the purpose is mainly to take the best of the CSG, universal turn, to apply to IR, since it "is paid by the half of taxpayers". It is, in the second place, familialiser the CSG on the model of the family quotient. The Socialists, the first objective is reversed: it is to take the "best" of the income tax, its escalation, to apply to the CSG, at single rate. It must be a "tool of redistribution", said Manuel Valls ("Les Echos" of April 9, 2010). And the prospect of a CSG transformed into "minimum tax" is left, that a second goal. On paper, closer to these two levies weighing on household would, in any case, cure the illegibility of a tax system which would not facilitate consent to tax, or even to reform. "As the French will have the feeling that the tax system is neither fair nor clear, they répugneront to take on major reforms," provides François Hollande, thus explaining why it taxes the heart of his candidate for the Socialist primary for the presidential election of 2012.

However, if attractive appear, the fusion of the CSG and the IR would encounter enormous difficulties. They do not take to the levy at source, usually presented as a side effect of this reform. For this apparent necessity could be bypassed. To do this, the former first Secretary of the PS suggests, thus, to the CSG, like IR, on the income of the previous year. The transition would occur, then, in the servicing two years in a row on the income of the same year. It would certainly not great to the point of view of equity tax, but more realistic than a deduction at the source which Jean-François Copé, who proposes it today, had to give up when he was Minister of the Budget.

This obstacle, however, is nothing next to the difference in nature between the CSG of the IR, which would finance the bulk of the social security tax. Created in 1991 to substitute for salary expenses and expand the base of the social levy, the CSG is legally a tax but economically an assessment because it opens rights to health insurance and family allowances (it also funds the old age solidarity fund). Naturally, this is not the case of the income tax, whose vocation is to be purely redistributive... Pay the IR opens no right, if not to feel full citizen.

If the CSG blends into the IR, how to determine who will be entitled to sickness benefits and family allowances, because there will be more contribution to face To overcome this difficulty, François Hollande suggests to health insurance and family allowances of universal coverage and to maintain social security contributions for the financing only risks at work: unemployment, old age, occupational diseases. But this would mean a very wide taxation, so a public ownership of social security. Not sure that this hidden reform is also consensus that the IR - CSG merge...

This idea has, finally, a more significant risk, to see the bad tax hunt the good. Levy low rate (7.5 at the normal rate) and very wide base (almost all of the revenue), CSG is trimmed of virtues: it provides little support for exemptions of any kind, is relatively sensitive depressions economic, while a small increase in its rate offers big performance. As it strikes just all revenues, it greatly facilitates the consent to l'impôt. Terribly effective, CSG now reports half more tax on income, including the product languished dangerously over the years: 80 billion euros on one side, 55 billion on the other. CSG is also dynamic and painless that the income tax is inert and poorly supported.

Also, in a country where the progressivity of the tax is inconceivable that after having granted numerous deductions and exemptions, making the first floor of the IR would lead inevitably to miter base, in the same way as the tax on the income of households has become a basket percé "niches" various EUR 37.5 billion. However, with reduced rates which benefit retirees and unemployed, CSG has already lost much of its side "perfect tax", and it is a paradox to see the modern Socialists in 2010 be willing to sell off this legacy rocardien... It is well known, should never be a good student by a bad.