Business taxation, Fabien Roussel
Windfall profits and share buybacks: Tax oil profits, fuel frozen at €1.60 a litre
Direction of change: increase, compared with current law.
The lever. Taxation of the exceptional profits of certain companies and of companies' buybacks of their own shares. Direction rule: ↑ heavier taxation.
« Face à la crise, il faut faire preuve d’audace et prendre des mesures exceptionnelles en bloquant les prix du carburant et en mettant à contribution l’industrie pétrolière. Nous demandons : De bloquer les prix à 1,60 € le litre pour l’essence sans plomb, à 1,50 € pour le gazole ; De taxer immédiatement les bénéfices de l’industrie pétrolière, qui ont explosé, notamment dans le raffinage. »1Translation by the editorsFaced with the crisis, we must show boldness and take exceptional measures by freezing fuel prices and making the oil industry contribute. We demand: To freeze prices at €1.60 a litre for unleaded petrol, at €1.50 for diesel; To immediately tax the profits of the oil industry, which have exploded, particularly in refining.
Words of Fabien Roussel, pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel), 8 April 2026. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme.
No programme released. Positions taken from public statements, words of associates or documents of the candidate’s party, each dated and sourced; last recorded on 18 October 2026.
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No cost-schedule parameter for this position: see the costing for the reason.
Costing
Announced by the candidate
not announced
The cited source does not cost this measure.
Published costings
none
No external costing of this position recorded to date.
Our calculation
not costed
Tax on oil industry profits with neither rate nor base, and a price freeze at the pump (€1.60 for petrol, €1.50 for diesel) without saying who bears the cost: the cost schedule only costs making permanent the corporate income tax surcharge on large companies. The candidate was still calling for « la confiscation des profits de Total » [“the confiscation of Total's profits”] on 12 September 2026 (Fête de l'Humanité).
Current law, sources and limits of the cost schedule
Current law. Exceptional contribution on the profits of large companies (turnover > €1bn): €8bn forecast for 2025 and €7.5bn collected. Renewed in the LFI 2026 at a reduced level: €4bn in the PLF, €6bn according to the Senate, €7.3bn according to the OFCE. Tax on share buybacks (LFI 2025): €0.4bn in 2025, €0.2bn per year on a permanent basis.
Horizon. Full year; the surcharge is not in the law beyond 2026: making it permanent is a gain compared with current policies.
Limits. 2026 yield of the renewal: three sources diverge (€4bn / €6bn / €7.3bn). A « taxe sur les superprofits » (superprofits tax) on excess profit relative to an average requires a precise definition. No generic official costing. The tax on share buybacks is already in force. Tax on share buybacks at 33% (option, editors' calculation, 18 October 2026): the tax in force (8%, consolidated turnover above €1bn) raises €200m per year at steady state; at 33% on the same base, 0.2 × 33 / 8 = €0.83bn, i.e. €0.63bn more. A 33% rate would discourage buybacks: static costing, upper limit; extending the base to the acquisition value of the shares and to companies with turnover above €750m has no published base. 4% tax on dividends paid (option, editors' calculation, 18 October 2026): the 3% contribution on amounts distributed « a rapporté à l'État 1,8 milliard d'euros par an entre 2013 et 2017 » [“brought the State 1.8 billion euros per year between 2013 and 2017”] (question to the Government by Charles de Courson, National Assembly); at 4%, 1.8 × 4 / 3 = €2.4bn. Two biases in opposite directions: companies distributing less than €10m would pay 2% (counted as less), while SMEs exempt from the former contribution and the rise in dividends since 2017 are not counted (more). The 3% scheme was struck down (Conseil constitutionnel, 6 October 2017) and refunded (about €10bn); the legal compliance of a new tax is not assessed, as elsewhere in the cost schedule.
- PLF 2026, Voies et moyens tome I, 2025-10: « Son rendement prévisionnel pour 2025 s'établit à 8 Md€ ... pour un montant de moitié inférieur à celui de 2025, soit 4 Md€ ... [Taxe sur les rachats d'actions] Les recettes ... s'élèveraient à 400 M€ pour l'année 2025 ... Le rendement prévisionnel pour 2026 est de 200 M€ »
- Sénat, L'essentiel sur le rapport d'avancement annuel 2026, 2026-04: « le Gouvernement l'a finalement reconduite dans la loi de finances initiale (pour un rendement prévisionnel de 6 milliards d'euros en 2026 après 7,5 milliards d'euros en 2025) »
- OFCE, Le déficit public devrait diminuer en 2026 et 2027, 2026-04: « la contribution exceptionnelle sur les grandes entreprises, dont le rendement attendu est de 7,3 milliards »
- Assemblée nationale, question au Gouvernement n° 203 (Charles de Courson), 2017, 2017-10: « Cette taxe, qui a rapporté à l'État 1,8 milliard d'euros par an entre 2013 et 2017, devra donc être intégralement remboursée aux entreprises qui l'ont payée. […] Le coût de ce remboursement est estimé, selon vos déclarations, à au moins 10 milliards 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.
- pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel), 8 April 2026. Words of Fabien Roussel. Position taken from public statements, not from a written programme. Read the source (pcf.fr, « Face à l'explosion des prix, le Gouvernement doit déclarer l'état d'urgence énergétique ! » (déclaration signée de Fabien Roussel)).
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