French MPs vote in committee for a 2% annual tax on investment securities held by family holding companies

The National Assembly's finance committee adopted an amendment on 8 October 2026, during its review of the 2027 budget bill, creating an annual 2 percent tax on the net value of investment securities ("titres de placement") held by family holding companies. These are securities held for return rather than controlling or strategic stakes, and a holding counts as a family holding where one family holds at least 33.33 percent of the financial or voting rights. The amendment, by Charles de Courson of the LIOT group, targets tax optimisation. The committee also lowered the revenue threshold for the tax on share buybacks from EUR 750 million to EUR 100 million, raised the profit ceiling for the reduced small-business corporate tax rate from EUR 42,500 to EUR 49,000, and made the research tax credit more progressive. On 9 October the committee then rejected the whole revenue part of the bill, by 31 votes to 3. The full Assembly debates the government's original text, so the measures must be tabled and adopted again. The vote on the revenue part is scheduled for 3 November. No revenue estimate has been published.

Taxing passive assets inside holding companies is a targeted alternative to a general wealth tax. The open questions are whether it is re-tabled and survives the plenary and the final budget, and whether the line between investment securities and operating stakes holds in practice.