Business taxation, Jean-Luc Mélenchon
Financial transaction tax: Financial transaction tax, €5bn of revenue announced
Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.
The lever. Tax paid on purchases of shares in large listed French companies: rate, base (intraday transactions, derivatives), planned European tax. Direction rule: ↑ heavier taxation (higher rate or broader base).
« C'est une taxe sur les transactions financières, elle est classique, 5 milliards, elle a d'ailleurs été adoptée en commission des finances. »1Translation by the editorsIt is a tax on financial transactions, a standard one, 5 billion; it was in fact adopted in the finance committee.
Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, tasked by the candidate with carrying the programme: they commit the candidate.
Link to the candidacy: Alongside Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he presents the budget the candidate would have passed from 2027 through an amending finance act; he is responsible for his economic programme.
Encoding
| Parameter | Current law | Proposed | Effective date or horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| Financial transaction tax rate | 0.4% | 0.5%* (outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation) (assumption by the editors, see the costing) | Full year; abolition: current yield of the tax (static), PLF 2027 forecast as central value, revised forecast for 2026 as lower bound; rate: yield of an incr… |
Costing
Announced by the candidate
+€5bn
per year, new revenue. Éric Coquerel, press conference of 14 October 2026 (around 0:53:32): « C'est une taxe sur les transactions financières, elle est classique, 5 milliards » [“It is a financial transactions tax, it is a standard one, 5 billion”]
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
+€0.6bn* (outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation)
per year for the public accounts, new revenue.
* Outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation (measured range: 0.3% to 0.4%).
The calculation
- Financial transaction tax rate: (0.5 − 0.4) ÷ 0.1 = 1 times “+0.1 point on the financial transaction tax rate (Senate finance committee: €600m for moving from 0.3% to 0.4%)”, each a gain of €0.6bn (0.6 to 0.6). Proposed value outside the range measured by the source: linear extrapolation (measured range: 0.3% to 0.4%). Range measured by the source: from 0.3% to 0.4% (increase costed by the Senate finance committee). Beyond that, linear extrapolation, flagged as such, which ignores the response of transaction volumes.
Assumption by the editors. Partial costing. Reading: the tax « adoptée en commission des finances » [“adopted in the finance committee”] is LFI's amendment no. I-CF780 to the PLF 2027, co-signed by Éric Coquerel and adopted in committee (October 2026): 0.5% on transactions other than intraday or derivative transactions, 0.1% on intraday transactions, 0.01% of the notional amount of derivative contracts, base extended to all financial instruments. Costed: the 0.5% rate on the current base, at the yield of the last increase costed by the Senate finance committee (€0.6bn per 0.1 point), linear extrapolation beyond 0.4%, which ignores the fall in the volume of transactions. Not costed: the extension of the base (intraday, derivatives, other securities), with no administrative costing; the amendment expects « jusqu'à 11 milliards d'euros supplémentaires par an » [“up to 11 billion euros extra per year”] from it, the candidate €5bn.
Figure announced by the candidate: no gap calculated: the announcement covers a different scope or a different year.
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Financial transaction tax (General Tax Code, Art. 235 ter ZD): 0.4% of the amount of acquisitions of shares in French companies with a market capitalisation above €1bn (rate raised from 0.3% to 0.4% by the Finance Act for 2025); bonds and derivatives are not taxed. Yield: €2,526m in 2025, €2,888m forecast for 2026, €2,973m in the PLF 2027.
Horizon. Full year; abolition: current yield of the tax (static), PLF 2027 forecast as central value, revised forecast for 2026 as lower bound; rate: yield of an increase costed by the Senate in December 2024, for 2025.
Limits. Abolition is costed at its revenue. The rate parameter applies the only institutional costing of an increase read, that of the Senate finance committee for the move from 0.3% to 0.4% (€600m, in force since 2025), a primary source that replaces the coefficient previously calculated by the editors (average yield of 0.1 point at the current rate: €2,973m / 4 = €0.74bn, higher, not used); any value above 0.4% is a linear extrapolation, marked as such, which ignores the reaction of the volume of transactions. No administrative source costs an extension of the base (intraday transactions, derivatives). Authors' costing, not counted: a move to 0.5% would bring in about €1.5bn more according to its authors (Senate, amendment I-950 to the PLF 2025, calculated on the revenue forecast for 2023). The yield follows the volume and price of transactions; it is not updated to 2032.
- PLF 2027, Évaluation des voies et moyens, tome I (pages 45 et 46), 2026-10: « La taxe sur les transactions financières s’applique aux acquisitions d’actions émises par les sociétés françaises dont la capitalisation boursière dépasse 1 milliard d’euros. Depuis la loi de finances pour 2025, son taux a été relevé à 0,4 % du montant total de la transaction. […] Les obligations et les produits dérivés ne sont pas soumis à la taxe. […] Les recettes se sont élevées à 2 526 M€ en 2025 […] La prévision s’établit à 2 888 M€ en 2026 […] La prévision s’établit à 2 973 M€ en 2027, soit une hausse de +85 M€ par rapport à 2026. »
- Sénat, PLF 2025, amendement n° A-24 de la commission des finances (article 26 quater, adopté), 2024-12-01: « La recette supplémentaire résultant du passage de 0,3 % à 0,4 % du taux de la taxe est estimée à 600 millions d'euros. »
- Sénat, PLF 2025, amendement n° I-950 (estimation de ses auteurs), 2024-11-20: « une telle augmentation permettrait à l'État de collecter environ 3,73 milliards d'euros, contre 2,24 milliards d'euros actuellement avec un taux de 0,3 %, soit une hausse annuelle de 1,5 milliard d'euros »
How to read these amounts. These are static costs and revenues, with no feedback effect, over a full year: nothing on growth, employment or the revenue that economic activity would gain or lose. A higher net cost does not on its own make a worse policy, nor net savings a better one: each programme rests on an economic model (demand-led stimulus, lower compulsory levies, consolidation of the public accounts…) that the cost schedule does not settle. GDP itself measures a volume of activity, not well-being or the usefulness of what is produced. Economic models and feedback effects.
- Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo), 14 October 2026. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme. Words of Éric Coquerel, MP, in charge of LFI's economic programme, tasked by the candidate with carrying the programme: they commit the candidate. Read the source (Conférence de presse « Comment nous allons remettre de l’ordre dans les comptes publics » (vidéo)).
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