France's Hollande Angers Businesses With Renewed Push for High Taxes

Who needs prosperity?

France's Socialist president may save face with some supporters by resurrecting a 75 percent super-tax on million-euro salaries, but his plan to shift the levy from individuals to companies only alienated business leaders on Friday and impressed few even on the left.

Francois Hollande announced a re-draft late on Thursday of his plan for a 75 percent tax on income over 1 million euros—an election pledge that was crushed by the Constitutional Council—so that it hits companies rather than individuals.

The rehash means he can maintain an emblematic tax rate meant to symbolize making the rich help pull France out of crisis, rather than having to cap it at the 66 percent France's top court says would be the legal maximum for individuals.

Yet it will reinforce a view that Hollande is anti-business, and could reap even less for the cash-strapped government than the initial version, which would have raised some 200 million euros ($260 million) a year from around 1,500 millionaires.