Budget 2026: How many “useless tax loopholes” are there in France? (and how much do they cost?)

ECONOMY: The Minister responsible for Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, wants to “remove what is useless” regarding tax loopholes. We do the maths

Where to find 40 billion euros additional savings for the state budget in 2026? While the government has pledged not to increase taxes next year, the Minister responsible for Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, announced his solution. Referring to tax loopholes on Wednesday on TF1, she declared that she wanted to “remove what is useless”, estimating that “there are 85 billion tax loopholes. If you have 10% fewer niches, that’s 8 and a half billion.

We have looked into the derogatory provisions which allow taxpayers and businesses to reduce the amount of taxes, under certain conditions, the amount of which is capped at 10,000 euros. And here is the information to remember:

15 niches represent half of the total cost

A document annexed to the 2025 finance bill, ” volume II of ways and means “, provides information on these tax loopholes. There are “474, of which 65 are in the process of extinction”, according to this document, for a total cost of 85.1 billion euros in 2025.

In the armada of exceptional measures, note that 15 alone represent 50% of the total cost. The first expenditure costs 7.74 billion euros: this is the research tax credit (CIR), which aims to encourage companies to undertake research and development activities.

69 niches concern “less than 100 taxpayers”

According to the minister, “dozens” of tax loopholes benefit “less than 100 taxpayers”. The minister did not specify their number… and the administration itself does not know it, nor how many taxpayers or businesses they benefit from. According to the annex to the finance law for 2025, half of the total tax loopholes have an “undetermined” number of beneficiaries, that is to say unknown.

According to this document, 69 tax loopholes benefit fewer than 100 taxpayers or businesses. But just over half of these measures, 36, have “0” taxpayers. This is explained by measures that are extinct or in the process of being extinct, or by the recent creation of a niche. This is for example the case of the “income tax reduction for subscriptions to the capital of young innovative companies”, created in 2024, which aims to direct household savings towards the capital of these organizations. Or aid to farmers receiving compensation for work accidents or occupational diseases, created in 2024.

Note that the most expensive niche and for the benefit of a small number of organizations is that of shipowners, who pay a tonnage tax and not the profit tax. Benefiting 69 companies, this exceptional measure costs the State nearly ’1.4 billion euros.

Some extinct tax measures still cost

In these small tax loopholes, let us point out that some that have been eliminated still cost money. For example, “the exceptional 40% deduction for companies investing in refrigeration and air treatment equipment using fluids other than hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)”, created in 2018 and removed in 2022, will cost until in 2027. Between 2023 and 2025, this niche costs between 5 and 6 million per year.

Eliminate or reduce a tax loophole… amounts to a tax increase

Removing or reducing a tax loophole amounts to increasing the taxes of the taxpayer or the company that previously benefited from it. The First President of the Court of Auditors, Pierre Moscovici, estimated on Wednesday that the elimination of tax loopholes “amounts to increasing taxes”, and that “we must not play with words”.

Taking the example of the tax credit for employing a person at home, he estimated: I myself have a good income, and I can deduct quite a bit for home help. If someone told me that we go from 10,000 to 3,000 euros, that would give me more taxes, but I have the means to do it. This is one of the equity issues that must be addressed. Remember that currently, the government is ruling out the idea of targeting the personal services tax credit because the political subject is explosive.

Measures serving large sections of society

Often criticized because perceived as a privilege for the wealthiest, tax loopholes are very diverse and benefit large categories of households and businesses. Certain exceptional measures are little known even though they benefit the most precarious people, such as the reduction for modest elderly or disabled people, created in 1972, for more than 7 million households. Or the additional half share for disabled taxpayers, which concerns nearly 1.5 million households.

Tax reductions and credits are also necessary for associations and are widely used by the French. More than 5.5 million households have benefited from these tax measures to help general interest associations.