Why did the wealthiest French people pay less income tax in 2025 than the previous year?

The subject is particularly sensitive, in a country which seeks to consolidate its finances. For the wealthiest 0.1% of French people, the average income tax decreased by 9.4% in 2025, notes a study by the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) published Tuesday, November 10. Revenue from this tax increased by 1% overall, which means that all households paying it contributed more.

These revenues had already increased significantly in 2024 (+ 9.9%). The total amount of net income tax collected by the State thus reached 92.6 billion euros in 2025 compared to 91.7 billion in 2024, after deduction of reductions and tax credits. But this increase affects different segments of the population unequally.

A new tax on high incomes The wealthiest 10% of French people have seen their income tax fall by an average of 1.4% in 2025. The drop is even 5.1% for the wealthiest 1% of the country. The rich among the rich, who represent 0.1% of the population, are those who recorded the largest drop in their income tax (-9.4%).

To help understand what the wealthiest 0.1% weigh, the General Directorate of Public Finance specifies that 59,000 of them paid more than 100,000 euros in income tax in 2025, and even more than a million euros for 1,600 of them. At the same time, the number of taxed households is increasing (+2.1%). Of the 42.1 million tax households who filed a tax return for 2025, 47.7% pay tax.

This is “the highest rate since 2012”, notes the DGFiP. The explanation for this reduction in taxation for the wealthiest in 2025 is to be found in the implementation of a new tax, the differential contribution on high incomes (CDHR), assumes the DGFiP in its note, with great caution. This tax, implemented in the 2025 budget and extended to 2026, ensures a minimum tax of 20% for a single person whose income exceeds 250,000 euros per year and 500,000 euros for a couple.

This affected around 14,000 households in 2025, according to the service of the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Anticipatory behavior in 2024 These taxpayers therefore engaged in anticipatory behavior to avoid paying more taxes: declaring more income in 2024 in anticipation of the arrival of the CDHR. Income from movable capital (RCM) declared in 2025 is down sharply (-13%), after an increase of 32% in 2024.

“This increase in 2024 could correspond to an anticipation of the establishment of the CDHR”, writes the service attached to Bercy. “It’s very classic behavior,” analyzes for franceinfo Arthur Guillouzouic, economist for the Institute of Public Policies (IPP). “We know that these are tax bases that react enormously,” he argues.

Listening to political decisions and advised by specialists, the wealthiest households anticipate tax changes to benefit from them or to avoid any additional taxation. Capital gains on the sale of securities, which correspond to the gain recovered at the time of the sale, also experienced a sharp increase in 2024 (+16%), to fall by 26% in 2025. "Here too, the prospect of the CDHR was able to precipitate in 2024 the payment of income normally expected in 2025", explains the study.

The same observation in 2026? Due to this tax avoidance strategy, the differential contribution on the highest incomes, which was to bring in 1.65 billion euros according to the government's hopes, only brought in 650 million euros in 2026, the executive announced in January. Which does not mean, however, that the wealthiest pay little taxes.

In 2025, "the 10% of tax households with the highest income represent almost three quarters of the total net income tax (73%)", specify the Bercy services. Will this downward tax trend on the very rich observed in 2025 continue next year? It is difficult to know precisely, explains Arthur Guillouzouic, due to the great variation from one year to the next.

But the economist specifies that some of the wealthiest households, in addition to having anticipated the implementation of the CDHR, were able to delay certain payments of money while waiting for a more favorable tax climate. However, “as part of the introduction of the flat tax [capital income tax implemented in 2018], we have seen that households do not postpone the payment of dividends for just one year; we can therefore imagine that they will continue to postpone the payment of capital gains after 2025,” he anticipates.

Machine-translated from French