Vers la fusion de l’impôt sur le revenu et de la CSG ?

The French tax system is characterized by the coexistence of a progressive, family-based, complex and declarative Income Tax that only concerns half of the households, and a proportional tax, the CSG, collected on a pay-as-you-earn basis. A merge would simplify tax determination and collection and would allow removing excessive exemption devices. Micro-simulations show how it would modify the tax burden-sharing. Simplification and equity require merging also the Prime pour l’emploi, but the objective to tax every household should be give up. The system would be more progressive, but would reveal high marginal tax rates for relatively low incomes. An eventual individualization should be accompanied by a strong increase in family allowances. Redistribution towards poorest families would be increased to the detriment of richest, which raises horizontal equity issues.