France, controversy over supertax on the rich. Lower than expected

Isn't the elephant giving birth to a mouse? This is what many are asking for this morning in Paris, reflecting with a bit of calm on the measures announced with great pomp by the French government yesterday evening, their maneuver (or "manovrina", if compared to what awaits the Italians). The super-tax on the super-rich, much heralded by Nicolas Sarkozy's entourage in recent days, exists, but with a very minimal impact on a global level. And with modest reflections on the pockets of the better-off French.
Claude Perdriel himself, an entrepreneur who made his fortune with toilet shredders, who is also active in the publishing field (he owns, among others, the Nouvel Observateur), said that the supertax is «better than nothing, but frankly it is silly". It was he himself who had signed, with fifteen other very wealthy compatriots, an appeal addressed to Sarkozy and entitled "tax us". Well, the famous supertax will only be applied to those with gross annual incomes higher than 500 thousand euros. Capital gains from real estate and securities transactions will also be taken into account. But the calculation will not take place on the basis of the family nucleus, but individually. Let's take an example: a couple with two dependent children (for tax purposes these are one person in France) will start paying the tax only starting from a global income of 1,5 million per year. In short, the measure should only concern 10 families, with a rate of 3%. If all goes well, the State will forfeit 200 million euros a year, a fraction of the figures of the recently approved maneuver, one billion for 2012 and 11 billion for next year. And which instead includes other measures, such as the reduction of tax breaks provided for overtime for workers. Or on real estate capital gains, which are already heavily taxed in France.