The deputies adopted on Tuesday the doubling of the rate of the Gafam tax, which will increase from 3 to 6%, as part of the finance bill for 2026. This measure, defended by a large majority of 296 votes to 58, comes as the government seeks to conclude a fiscal compromise with the Socialist Party to ensure the adoption of the budget.
Initially, the Macronist elected officials had proposed in committee to increase the rate to 15%, before changing their minds and supporting a compromise of 6% during the session. This decline has sparked criticism from left-wing MPs, who see it as a concession to American pressure. The government fears possible commercial retaliation from the Trump administration, already hostile to the French tax on digital giants in 2019.
Adopted in 2019, the Gafam tax was to be a provisional response to the failure of international negotiations on digital taxation. Designed to tax the turnover achieved in France by the large platforms (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft), it only concerns around thirty groups and brings in less than 700 million euros per year, a modest amount, but highly political.
The Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure, reacted to the vote by calling for caution. “I take note of Parliament’s desire to strengthen the tax on digital giants. This is an object which must be handled with caution, in particular with regard to the increase in thresholds, and on which we must move forward on a European scale and through international discussion, within the framework of Pillar 1 of the OECD. I will try to convince parliamentarians of this in the next stages of examination of the PLF,” he declared.
Beyond the increase in the rate, the deputies also raised the threshold of liability, thus broadening the field of companies concerned. The text must now continue its parliamentary journey, in a context where tensions between Paris and Washington could once again reignite around digital taxation.
