for the third consecutive year, France is European champion of taxes and social contributions, according to Eurostat

A figure that will not go unnoticed, in full movement of "yellow vests" against rising fuel taxes. With taxes and social contributions accounting for 48.4% of GDP, France is the European country where the share of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is the highest, revealed Eurostat, the statistical research body of the Union. European Union, Wednesday 28 November.

France is the European champion of taxes for the third year in a row, relieves Le Figaro. Tax revenues accounted for 47.7% of GDP in 2016, and also 47.7% in 2015.

Belgium comes next, with tax revenues reaching 47.3% of GDP, followed by Denmark (46.5%), Sweden (44.9%) and Finland (43.4%). Countries with the lowest share of taxes and social contributions as a percentage of GDP were, in 2017, Ireland with 23.5% of GDP, Romania (25.8%) and Bulgaria (29.5%). ). On average in the European Union, tax revenues represent 40.2% of GDP.

The share of compulsory contributions in GDP increased by 0.7 percentage points in France in 2017, Eurostat reports. France is the fifth country where the weight of taxes and social contributions increased the most last year, behind Cyprus, Luxembourg, Slovakia and Malta. In total, "Compared with 2016, the ratio of tax revenue to GDP increased in 2017 in fifteen Member States" out of 28, Eurostat note.

As noted by Figaro, the importance of tax revenue as a percentage of GDP is explained by the weight of social contributions: they represent 18.8% of GDP, against an average of 13.3% in the European Union. On the contrary, income and wealth taxes represent 12.8% of GDP in France, compared with 13.1 on average across Europe.