Taxes: 300,000 companies will no longer pay CVAE from 2024, announces Bruno Le Maire

Particularly awaited by professionals, the timetable for eliminating the contribution on business added value (CVAE) is becoming clearer. Guest on LCI this Tuesday morning, the Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, indicated that the government will eliminate “the minimum contribution to the CVAE” from next year.

The measure will be included in the 2024 budget, expected in Parliament this fall. As a reminder, today, companies liable for CVAE – i.e. those with a turnover of at least 500,000 euros – must pay a minimum of 63 euros, “unless total exemption from contribution”. Today, nearly 300,000 companies are exempt from this minimum contribution, which will therefore be eliminated.

This measure concerns more than half of the 520,000 companies liable for this tax. Bruno Le Maire's office specifies that 82% of these are very small businesses (VSEs) and 18% are small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs). “It’s a small amount, but anything that simplifies life for businesses, that reduces costs, that’s going in the right direction, that frees up the French economy,” explained Bruno Le Maire.

The shortfall for the state coffers amounts to one billion euros. If it wants to keep its commitment to see the CVAE disappear by 2027, the government will still have to eliminate the three billion euros still paid by companies for this tax on their results in the next three years. “If we can remove it sooner, we will remove it sooner,” insisted Bruno Le Maire.

It must be said that business leaders do not hide their dismay. After committing to definitively abolish the CVAE in 2023, the executive announced that the elimination would be spread over two years, and finally that it would be implemented “by 2027”. “The State is sending an opposite signal, which alters our confidence, even though companies need it to be reliable and responsible,” Medef boss Patrick Martin declared in our columns in response to these palinodies.