PLF 2023: The Impact France Movement calls for the greening of the budget

Given the challenges linked to sobriety on the one hand, and to inflation and the drop in purchasing power on the other, it is essential that the State's will to invest better in companies be reflected in this year's budget, by supporting those that respond to these challenges as a priority, by integrating their commitments on these two subjects at the heart of public policies, and by encouraging them, in fact, to avoid costs for society, and therefore for public finances. Based on this observation, 4 priorities will be defended by the Impact France movement in the discussions that will take place at the National Assembly this week:

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The first priority is to make Bpifrance the bank for transition:

To transform our economic fabric towards a more sustainable, sober and efficient model, and to align our companies with the objective of the Paris Agreement, it is essential that the public money injected into French companies is consistent with the challenges of sober development:

• Add support for companies that work in the general interest and place ecological impact, social impact and solidarity at the heart of their model among the BPI's main priorities, and thus support the development of ESUS companies.
• Make Bpifrance's support conditional on the publication of a carbon footprint and a transition plan for companies with more than 50 employees

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^{Second priority: encourage corporate sobriety strategies}

The expected abolition of the CVAE without any counterparts in terms of ecological and social commitments gives the impression that no lessons have been learned from the pitfalls of the CICE, which, almost 10 years ago, did not meet its social objectives and concretely destabilized the most committed companies among them, the employing associations, which were thus penalized (they ended up obtaining compensation via the CITS).

We are therefore asking for two transformations that seem essential today in view of the imperatives of sobriety claimed by the government itself:

• Make the abolition of the CVAE conditional on ecological and social commitments, resulting in the publication of key ecological and social indicators for all companies with more than 50 employees, as well as the publication of a transition plan presenting the objectives and method of improvement over a three-year period, thus helping them to commit to medium and long-term sobriety strategies. This would also generate real avoided costs for society, which would partially compensate for this tax cut.
• To set up a global reform of the tax on salaries, because the employing associations, essential actors of solidarity, will not benefit from the suppression of the CVAE. We therefore ask that this abolition be the occasion to engage a global reform of the tax on salaries which constitutes the most counterproductive production tax for employment, as the UDES also supports. This global revision will be all the more necessary in view of the changes in taxation following the ecological and social commitments that we are calling for for all companies, and in particular on VAT.

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^{Third priority: develop ecological and social innovation}

Today, support for innovation is largely directed towards tech companies without regard for their ecological and social commitments. Given the challenges facing the country, it seems essential to refocus this support on issues related to sobriety. We therefore propose to change two key mechanisms:

• To confer on ESUS approved young companies the same advantages as the status of Young Innovative Company (thus really considering social and environmental innovation in the same way as technological or scientific innovation) such as the exemption of employer's social insurance and family allowance contributions for R&D project managers, corporate officers who participate, in a principal capacity, in the company's research and development project, exemption from the CFE, exemption from taxes on profits, etc
• Make the allocation of the Research Tax Credit (6.75 billion euros) conditional on ecological and social commitments, resulting in the publication of key ecological and social indicators for all companies with more than 50 employees, as well as the publication of a transition plan presenting the objectives and the method of improvement over a three-year period in which these R&D expenditures would be included.

Fourth priority: Develop purchasing power with a positive impact

The rise in inflation and the resulting drop in purchasing power implies a real weakening of ecologically and socially responsible products, which integrate the cost of the general interest they pursue. In this line, we propose two structural evolutions allowing to reorient consumption towards more virtuous products, having moreover avoided costs for the society:

• Implementa Green VAT by applying a reduced VAT rate to ecologically responsible products in order to relieve the wallets of households and to encourage companies that work for the ecological and social transition. These products and services would be strictly identified by the State and would all have a common denominator of responding to a crucial environmental issue: carbon emissions, waste of resources, plastic pollution, collapse of biodiversity, etc. A modulation from 10% to 5.5% would also be implemented according to the social commitments of the company inherent to the design of the product or service (ESUS companies). Discover our tribune.
• Create a "sustainable food voucher" for the 9.3 million households living below the poverty line : a food voucher of 100 euros per month, divided into two parts : 80 euros that could be used to purchase all food products, and a 20 euros bonus that would be added to it for the purchase of organic and fair trade products.