The French government’s reaction won’t just be indignation. If Hollande has his way, Ibrahimovic will get socked with a 75 percent income tax on his new mega-salary. Same goes for anyone earning more than about $1.2 million a year in France.
Hollande is trying to lower France’s deficit in order to stave off contagion from other faltering eurozone countries such as Spain. The loudest complaints about the 75 percent tax bracket come, predictably, from those who stand to pay it.
At a small hotel in Paris, Sophie Canipel says she once liked the idea of inheriting this place from her parents. But with the top-tier tax, she says, she’ll be ruined.
“Right now, as upper middle class people, my husband and I are paying around 45 percent in income taxes each year,” Canipel says. “When I inherit the hotel from my parents we’ll get bumped up into that 75 percent tax bracket because the value of the place will be counted as income. There’ll be nothing left over for us.”
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