Cognac sales have collapsed for 5 years, the Assembly votes for specific VAT relief, with the approval of the government

This time, the government is in favor. This Monday, November 2, MPs adopted a VAT exemption for wine and alcoholic beverage companies which make more than 85% of their sales from exports, such as cognac. The measure appears in an amendment to the finance bill (PLF) for 2027, tabled by Renaissance MP Sandra Marsaud (Charente), to which the government gave a favorable opinion.

The objective is to amortize the necessary purchases and operations carried out by these companies to carry out their production (acquisition of goods, processing services, assembly, distillation, etc.). "Relieve cash flow" Such a VAT-free purchasing system already exists but its application is "limited" by a European directive which reserves it "only for purchases of goods made by the exporter, and not for those made by its suppliers", according to the amendment by Sandra Marsaud, who therefore proposes a new one.

“The measure presented here above all makes it possible to relieve the cash flow of the companies concerned, which is obviously very important in the context of the crisis we are going through, in the cognac sector,” said the Minister of Public Accounts David Amiel, in favor of the amendment. Cognac has seen its sales, almost all of which are exported, decline over the past five years, with a drop of 20% in volume in the second half of 2025 compared to 2024. They have been weighed down by an increase in American customs duties, a Chinese surtax on spirits and the general drop in alcohol consumption.

According to customs, cognac represented some three billion euros in exports in 2024, more than half of which went to the United States (36%) and China (20%). Multiple VAT adjustments The deputies adopted, against the advice of the government, multiple VAT adjustments, such as a tax exemption, carried by the RN and LFI, on essential products. They also rejected the doubling of VAT on pay television, a government measure which provoked an outcry from Canal+.

David Amiel estimated that, since the start of the first reading examination of the 2027 budget, “the public deficit has deteriorated” virtually “by 23.9 billion euros”. However, these votes must all be put into perspective, because the government would ultimately have to resort to 49. 3 or ordinances to pass the budget, which would allow it to erase additions from deputies.

Machine-translated from French