Paris is trying to compete with London as a European financial center, the Financial Times reports. The idea seems to be that tax rates have something to do with attracting business:
One of Mr Sarkozy's first acts as president was to cut tax on the wealthiest by extending the so-called tax shield. The maximum a person pays in all taxes is now 50 per cent of income, down from 60 per cent. The cut has become more controversial amid the crisis but the president has refused to reverse it. Indeed, the government has gone further by improving the tax treatment of expatriate French or foreign employees posted to France.
At the same time, the British government has moved in the opposite direction, with a clampdown on tax treatment of non-domiciled residents and, from next year, a 50 per cent top rate of income tax on the highest earners. "The huge advantage that London had in taxation has pretty much gone," says [French Finance Minister] Lagarde. France has also abolished stamp duty on share transactions...
No wonder the British economy is tanking.