Overview
- The Senate published a commission report on Wednesday, June 17, 2026, saying official statistics have become a 'black box' that hides the assets and tax behavior of the richest households.
- Senators reconfirmed earlier figures showing 13,335 households eligible for the real‑estate wealth tax (IFI) had zero or negative income tax and that 40,692 former ISF households in 2017 reported no income tax liability.
- The report details standard tax‑optimization techniques used by very wealthy taxpayers, including routing income through holding companies, using 'apport‑cession' transfers to defer capital gains, reclassifying personal costs as professional expenses, and life‑insurance or succession devices.
- To restore visibility and policy control the report lists 11 measures, chiefly regular INSEE surveys of high wealth, better matching of tax and administrative records, digitizing succession declarations, and expanding banks' prefilled tax filings to include assets not just income.
- Senators warn that the combination of data gaps and widespread optimization weakens tax fairness and public confidence, and they signal the next step will be legislative and administrative work to implement the report's recommendations and tighten asset reporting.