The French government has called for a new 90% tax on any annual income above €400,000.
This is missing major context. While this was a proposal from the New Popular Front left-wing coalition, which won the most seats in France’s National Assembly, the bloc fell short of a majority to be able to rule. A new government has not yet been formed.
A claim being shared on social media that the new French government plans to introduce a 90% tax on income above €400,000 is missing important context.
The post, shared more than 3,900 times on X (formerly known as Twitter) and also circulating on Facebook, says: “French government calls for a new 90% tax on any annual income above €400,000. 90%.”
A 90% tax on income above €400,000 (currently about £338,000) is part of a proposed income tax scale with 14 brackets, a policy of the France Unbowed party (La France Insoumise), which is part of the New Popular Front, a left-wing coalition of parties in France.
The New Popular Front won the most seats—182—in the second round of the National Assembly elections, which took place on 7 July.
However, while the New Popular Front won the most seats as a bloc in the parliament, they did not reach the threshold of 289 lawmakers required to secure a majority to govern. There is no guarantee that the New Popular Front will be able to form a government despite winning the most seats.
Following the election France is without a government (except in a caretaker capacity), and negotiations are underway between different parties, including Emmanuel Macron’s centrist group and right-wing parties, to establish a coalition that could form a ruling majority.
This means the social media posts claiming that the 90% income tax rate is a policy of the new French government may be misleading, as they don’t explain that the process of establishing a government is still underway.
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Members of the National Assembly, which is the lower house of the French parliament, are elected through a two-round system where voters choose their preferred candidate in two polling days, usually a week apart. The first round of this election took place on 30 June.
Assuming no candidate wins 50% of the first round of votes, the top two go to the second round, as well as all those with support from at least 12.5% of registered voters.
It’s important to consider whether what you see is accurate before sharing it online, as misleading posts such as these can undermine trust in election results and democratic processes.
We’ve checked a number of false and misleading claims about the French elections, including that a French politician promised Arabic would be an official language, an old video of Marine le Pen ‘crying’ and a miscaptioned election results map which claimed to show a huge victory for National Rally.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as missing context because there is no new government currently in place in France, as no one party or coalition won enough seats to form a ruling majority.
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