150 euros per cow: a new tax exemption measure for cattle breeders

Don't alienate the farmers. This seems to be the objective of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who announced this Friday a new tax exemption measure in favor of cattle breeders. As a reminder, the latter saw their taxes increase due to the increase in the value of their livestock.

“In the 2024 budget, an exceptional measure to support French breeding will take the form of a provision of 150 euros per cow up to 15,000 euros per farm, or one hundred cows, in order to reduce the taxation of breeders which results of the increase in the value of their stock,” indicated Bruno Le Maire in an interview with the regional daily La Montagne. “This is a strong demand from the breeding world. In these times of budgetary scarcity we still wanted to access it,” added the man who was Minister of Agriculture from 2009 to 2012, before a visit on Friday to the Livestock Summit in Cournon-d'Auvergne.

Bercy estimates the cost of the measure at “a few tens of millions of euros”. This tax exemption was demanded by the FNSEA, the majority agricultural union which emphasizes that with inflation, the book value of cows increases, which artificially inflates the taxable profit of farmers. From an accounting standpoint, cows are “stranded stock”.

This measure is also seen as a way to combat the decline in livestock numbers. Without tax exemption, “breeders could be tempted to sell a few cows” to reduce their tax, which risks resulting in a “loss of production capacity”, pointed out the president of the FNSEA Arnaud Rousseau on Wednesday during a conference. Press.