Tax-free year in France? Government looks to shift to system of automatic withholding

PARIS: France is considering making 2017 a year free of income tax.

The government wants to shift to a system of automatic withholding, similar to that in the United States and much of the rest of the world. Employees in France currently pay taxes a year after their income is earned.

Christian Eckert, France’s budget secretary, said Wednesday that the government will not double-tax workers in 2018, the year automatic withholding is to begin. So 2017 incomes could effectively be tax-free for regular salaries.

Taxpayers won’t actually feel much of a difference though they would still spend 2017 paying for the previous year.

The US began withholding taxes in 1943. Canada and Germany did so even earlier, in 1917 and 1925 respectively.