フランスの億万長者は、欧州最高の税金の高いのを逃がれるために、スイス(16%)、イギリス(12%)、ベルギー(12%)、アメリカ合衆国(9%)に住所を移転。脱税?節税?
REPORTAJE
Obélix y la marmita belga
Néchin, el exilio fiscal de Depardieu, es un fantasmal poblado fronterizo que cada tres meses hace una fiesta de bienvenida para las decenas de franceses que van incrementando su censo
Miguel Mora 23 DIC 2012 - 08:30 CET
FEATURE
Obelix and Belgian pot
Néchin, Depardieu tax exile, is a ghostly border town every three months ago a welcome party for dozens of French people are increasing their census
Miguel Mora 23 DIC 2012 - 08:30 CET
The street Reine Astrid Néchin Belgian town is an infinite line, a road more than a street. The flat landscape is dotted with beech and a winding path, witnesses of a past in which there were cars, cows grazing and rich farms, all that this livelier surely this vacuum without bars or shops in sight. As the visitor moves through the road leading from France, without noticeable any sign of physical border-on the sidewalk on the left raises some red brick houses, the typical single-family house that populates the Franco-Belgian stripe . On the right hand side, long walls two meters tall yellow hide overgrown concrete mansions where millionaires live French families who came here 15 years ago to escape one of the highest tax burdens in Europe.
This sad Belgian hamlet, located in no man's land and walking distance of Roubaix, seems almost deserted this cold December morning: no one next to the little church, no one in the suburban center. Only grass is boring and a huge sky donkey's belly. Néchin Estaimpuis and Leers form with a municipality of 10,000 inhabitants, of which 27% are French. Forgotten so far, the council has jumped to half the planet means that the popular actor Gérard Depardieu has chosen as a destination for spend the rest of his days, or six months and one day required each year to avoid paying taxes in France -.
Evasion rich Gauls began with the Solidarity Tax for the fortunes that put Mitterrand in 1981
After having paid, he said this week in his open letter to Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault, 145 million euros of taxes in 45-year career and an unlikely 85% taxes last year, Obelix has proclaimed he is fed up be French. "Now I want to drink in the Belgian pot, 'says Pascal, a young cabbie who deposits journalist Lille at the door of the supposed new house Depardieu, located at 90th Street Reine Astrid.
Nobody answers the doorphone modern mansion. Opposite the house is a utility stopped, and inside there is a lady. Her name is Sara, is French, is 47 years old, and first says he does not live here but then said yes, he resides in Néchin. After a five-minute conversation, proves to be a fan or a soulmate of Gégé Depardieu. Or perhaps an employee. "What you have to do is leave him alone. What you would like people to call to your door every five minutes? He has his reasons for what he has done. For example, lost his son. I lost a son, and when that happens sometimes you need to change. "
Others, however, think that the announced compadre leakage Asterix in France has generated a psychodrama media that questions whether it is still considered the homeland of the Enlightenment, was a traitor in the femoral goring President François Hollande just when the village gala feels harassed by an unpayable debt (90% of GDP), phalanges besieged by hoplites of modern Rome (Berlin) and threatened by legions of traders speculate waiting neocon consciousness with its risk premium in 2013 .
"Depardieu's friend Sarkozy and that explains it," agrees the driver immediately. "He said he was only going to tease Hollande and cause difficulties for the Socialists."
The avowed aim of the eminent actor, which in effect is an admirer and close friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, not only become the quintessential tax exile, but also "embodied in the opposition leader Hollande", they told this week his friends in an interview in Le Monde revealed that Depardieu decided to announce his departure from France on 6 May, the day of the election victory Hollande, though in fact already spent more than six months a year abroad.
One reason is that the socialist president promised during the election campaign a superlevy 75% for income exceeding one million euros, which is still before Parliament. Upon arrival to power, Hollande launched a more equitable tax reform that businessmen and most powerful millionaires of France considered "punitive" for their companies and their pockets. But in reality, the tax exile is a custom that elites and French fortunes exercised without the slightest twinge decades, steer left or right. As he recalled an editorial in Le Monde this week, "200 years ago nobles escaped the guillotine, for 30 years beyond the Treasury."
The Great Escape began in 1981, when the presidency of François Mitterrand and his coalition government with the Communists instituted the estate tax, then softened with the name of Solidarity Tax to the Fortunes (ISF). The ISF has always been much discussed but survived until the time of Sarkozy, who promised to eliminate it if only it lowered. The Socialists returned to its previous state once in power. Specialists explain that it is a progressive tax, which affects about 600,000 people, and in 2011 reported to the French State over 4,500 million euros. But critics see it as a boomerang, considering the number of fugitives that generates tax and the consequent outflow of capital.
French interpreter housing in the locality. / AFP
According to data provided by the Ministry of Finance in February 2011, a taxpayer's ISF every day left the country between 1990 and 2003, and the exodus of more than 10,000 people had a serious cost: is relocated between 80,000 and 100,000 million euros in capital.
Although the phenomenon of tax exile is little and poorly documented, it is now known that Switzerland is paradise preferred by the French (16% of them choose it), followed by Belgium and the UK, each hosting 12% of the escapees. The Big Ben and the Manneken Pis seduce mostly to millionaires looking to protect their personal assets. Belgium offers more stability (has the same tax system since 1830) and assorted attractive: not only is there the ISF, but not taxed capital gains on the sale of shares and real and personal property, and are priced at 7% the donations to third parties, which in France can get taxed at 60%.
What seems clear is that Depardieu and Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury group LVMH, the richest man in France and the fourth in the world, according to Forbes magazine, are just the tip of the iceberg of a more widespread phenomenon. As already known this week, there are currently about 500 French in the waiting list to obtain Belgian nationality by the emergency procedure. Among those cases is the study of Bernard Arnault. The Foreign Office has put the first hurdle because Arnault only resides in Brussels for a year and the law requires three. As the time comes, here it is at last, after 45 minutes of waiting, the burgomaster (mayor) of Estaimpuis and Néchin.
Daniel is an affable Senesael who likes to dress with a quirky twist. Bring chicken yellow hair, wearing a white shirt with the collar full of rhinestones, rocker black jacket and red tie. His car, parked at the gate of the communal house and painted red and white, imprinted with photo, name and mobile: a permanent political campaign and to serve the public, if at all any.
When he gets up to greet the visitor, appearance of vocalist orchestra complete with a lean body and a smile that reflects more distrust hospitality. "What if we do a party Depardieu? We receive good, as we do with all new residents. Every three months we are preparing a big welcome party, "he explains. For bilateral derision, the mayor is Belgian Socialist Party deputy. For the past eight years. Mayor since 1994, has just been re-elected for a fourth term and proclaiming his innocence with a mischievous smile: "I know the partner François Hollande is not happy, but I have no guilt. It is I who must change the laws! I agree with him that we need to change European law to walk towards tax harmonization to avoid relocation of fortunes. But I am surprised that people are shocked with Depardieu. In this county we have 27% of French and first arrived 15 years ago. "
The first to reach Néchin he recalls the mayor, were the Mulliez, owned supermarket chain Auchan and other companies, which occurred in the nineties with a fortune estimated at 10,000 million euros. Today they employ over 600 locals in detergent factory, and they reside in the 90th Street Reine Astrid, the same where Depardieu allegedly have bought their new house for 800,000 euros-Senesael refuses to confirm if the actor purchased or rented "to protect their privacy."
Currently there are 500 French in the waiting list to obtain Belgian nationality by way of urgency
The Franco-Belgian bay also houses in this area near Lille, other families of entrepreneurs known as the Pollet, founder of La Redoute clan, famous clothing store that sells online. There is also a leather factory of Louis Vuitton, and "a lot of social mixing," boasts the mayor. Middle class people, staff, retirees and professionals who benefit from momio that is living in a border region and house prices. "They will always be lower than in France," says Senesael, bypassing the local press that the value of real estate in the area has increased by 2,000% in the past 15 years.
In villages like Menin, Mont-Saint-Aubert, Beclers, but also in Uccle, near Brussels, rampant at home thousands of French, and less well-heeled. Since the invention of the free movement of capital, the border between the two countries became mist. A quick tour of the Grand Place de Lille helps to understand the northeast of France is closer to Brussels than Paris: the same buildings with gabled roofs, similar fondness for the treadmills, equal mussels and fries ... Centuries ago, the great fortunes of the current French born in northern Belgian enclaves as Herseaux, Luingne or Esplechin. Now living and (not) pay their taxes here as naturally.
The trick of living (or say which one lives) near the border is doubly or triply profitable. From Paris to Néchin takes 75 minutes: one hour TGV to Lille and a fifteen minute drive. The residence allows escapees enjoy pious theoretical tax and Social Security continue to use French, better equipped and more generous than the Belgian, plus unpaid circulation rates and enrollment in Belgium, more expensive than the other side.
This little slip took Néchin Mayor to launch, half of the previous decade, a "hunt for fraudsters" today sounds more sarcastic than ever. Maybe that's why few Senesael a hurry and want to talk to the press. His spokesman says he decided "not to communicate more about the affair" because they are "overwhelmed". But the mayor does not seem so overwhelmed and there goes his plea of self-defense: "I'm in the media focus to my regret. We are in danger of becoming a political event, but I have not asked Depardieu to come and live here. As is the case, just like the Eiffel Tower coming too ... But I have nothing to gain from this. Obelix has befallen me, Cyrano, the sacred monster of French cinema, a Stradivarius. " And do not you think that Belgium is doing his comrade unfair competition Hollande? "That we would have to ask Depardieu. And now I have to go. "
It is time to leave Néchin. Viewing people without bars, dogs, cats, children and retirees, the bus without passengers and shops in the Rue de Calvaire closed, we understand that you have to throw a lot of value or eager to actually come and live here. It is a place not an anti-people, which is just the sun and where the alternative is to shut at home or take the car and get out elsewhere.
From a home comes a tall, bald, thin gets into a big gray Mercedes. "He has 13 years and 250,000 miles," says apologetically unsolicited. He refuses to give his name, said to be the first Franco-Belgian and then identified as an "immigrant", the son of a father "of San Marino who came to work here as a slave in the fifties." "What of Depardieu is a joke," says later. "It's just a small drop of water in an ocean. What do we say of Messi and Ronaldo, then? The taxes are paid by their clubs! What millionaires UAE and Qatar, what? That's what matters. He is not here. Auchan arrived 15 years ago and then the other. Depardieu has simply followed the path. "
Tax Exiles
About 800 French move each year tax resident abroad. 16% choose Switzerland, 12% Belgium and the UK and the U.S. 9%. These are some of the best known names.
ENTREPRENEURS
Bernard Arnault. First fortunes of France and fourth in the world, according to Forbes. Has 41,000 million. He bought a house in Uccle (Belgium) and in September asked the Belgian. In proceedings. Mulliez family (owner of Auchan, Decathlon, Mondial Moquette, Norauto). Néchin live in Belgium, since the nineties. Peugeot family. They live in Switzerland. Jacques Badin (Carrefour) resides in Brussels, Bélgica.Hugues Taittinger, champagne maker, has Belgian nationality since the summer. Bernard Darty, founder Appliances Darty, Belgium. Jean-Louis David, hairdressers, resides in Switzerland. Philippe Hersant, Hersant group communication (Le Figaro, L'Express), resides in Bégica.
ARTISTS AND ACTORS
Alain Delon is a Swiss citizen since 1999. Michel Houellebecq, writer, has lived in Spain and Ireland. Daniel Auteuil resides in Belgium. Emmanuelle Béart in Belgium. Laetitia Casta in UK. Jose Garcia, in Belgium. David Habibi, Canada. Alain Ducasse, chef, changed his French nationality to go to Monaco. Charles Aznavour resides in Switzerland. Johnny Hallyday at Gstaad (Switzerland).
ATHLETES
Most prefer to reside in Switzerland. This is the case of pilots Alain Prost, Jean Alesi and Sebastien Loeb, the players Guy Forget, Henri Leconte, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Richard Gasquet or Amélie Mauresmo or the skier Jean-Claude Killy.
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