Pour défendre le quotient familial

Henri Sterdyniak ()

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Abstract: System The family quotient is used to determine individual income tax according to the taxpayer's filing status (family status and dependency exemptions). The French family quotient system ensures a fair breakdown of income tax between families in the following way : two families of different sizes have the same tax burdens when their standards of living are the same (as measured by income in Consumption Units). However, as family benefits are a lot lower than the cost of children, the fact of having children leads to a drop in the standard of living except in the case of extremely low-income families. This drop is sharper when the family is well-off. The family quotient system is criticized by certain authors who have drawn their inspiration from other countries' examples and advocate reducing the tax credit allocated to well-off families. These savings would be used for such purposes as increasing family benefits or reducing the tax burden of other categories of taxpayers. In fact, such reforms would emphasize the difference between the standards of living of well-off families with children and childless couples or single people with the same primary income. They would run counter to the logic of the French tax system. It is not the family quotient that makes the French tax and social security levies system fairly unprogressive, but the high weight of social contributions compared to direct taxes.

Date: 1992-08
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Published in Economie et Statistique / Economics and Statistics, 1992, 256, pp.5 - 24

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Journal Article: Pour défendre le quotient familial (1992)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03417109

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