Some anticipated the entry into force of the contribution on high incomes: the wealthiest French people saw their income tax drop in 2025

The average income tax fell by more than 9% in 2025 for the wealthiest 0.1% of French people, notes a study published Tuesday by the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) while revenue from this tax increased by 1%. The total amount of net income tax thus reached 92.6 billion euros in 2025 compared to 91.7 billion in 2024, after deduction of reductions and tax credits, specifies this study. This increase is explained by a “2.9% increase in tax on the scale” and a “sharp reduction in tax outside the scale (...

) as well as that of the exceptional contribution on high incomes", advances the document consulted by AFP. The parade of the differential contribution on high incomes The 10% of the wealthiest French people saw their income tax fall by 1.4% in 2025. A reduction which reaches 5.1% for the 1% of the wealthiest and 9.4% for the 0.1% of the wealthiest, some of whom benefit from incomes exceeding a million euros, as noted by Le Monde.

If the study does not provide a direct explanation for this decline, it underlines that some of these households were able to anticipate in 2024 the entry into force, the following year, of a new tax, the differential contribution on high incomes (CDHR), aimed at "ensuring a minimum tax of 20% of the income of the wealthiest households". “The taxpayers concerned and able to anticipate the payment of certain income were able to trigger their payment in 2024 rather than in 2025,” notes the document, and thus partially escaped the new tax. Of the 42.1 million tax households which have filed a tax return for 2025, the number of taxed households is "increasing (+2.1%), reaching 20.1 million", which represents 47.7% of all tax households, i.e. "the highest rate since 2012".

The number of untaxed households remains relatively stable (+0.3%).

Machine-translated from French