Nobody puts billionaire Bernard Arnault in a legislative corner.
The founder and CEO of luxury behemoth LVMH, who currently ranks as France’s richest man with a net worth of roughly $169 billion, has come out swinging against a proposed wealth tax in his home country, telling The Sunday Times it would kill the French economy.
The brainchild of economics professor Gabriel Zucman, the proposed measure calls for a 2 percent tax on fortunes above €100 million (about $117.5 million). Zucman believes it could raise as much as €20 billion ($23.5 billion) per year from 1,800 households, but other economists have argued that it would only pull in €5 billion ($5.9 billion) if the wealthy leave France.
Arnault, who stands to lose more than €1 billion ($1.2 billion) with the tax, has accused Zucman of being “first and foremost a far-left activist” who is using “pseudo-academic competence” to promote an ideology aimed at dismantling the liberal economic system.
“This is clearly not a technical or economic debate, but rather a clearly stated desire to destroy the French economy,” Arnault told The Times. “I cannot believe that the French political forces that govern or have governed the country in the past could lend any credibility to this offensive, which is deadly for our economy.”
Zucman, a professor of economics at the Paris School of Economics and the École normale supérieure, has rejected Arnault’s accusations, taking to the social media platform X to say that he has never been an activist for any movement or party. “We can have fundamental disagreements, and Arnault is entitled, like all citizens, to his opinions,” Zucman told the French news agency AFP. “But this debate must take place with respect for the truth and the facts.”
The French government is currently under pressure to reduce its growing debt pile and budget deficit. The wealth tax, branded the “Zucman Tax” by some, has been embraced by the left, with the Socialist Party calling for new French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu to include it in France’s 2026 budget to reduce the need for spending cuts when tackling the public deficit. The right fears the scheme may result in the rich leaving France and taking their wealth with them. Lecornu has told French regional newspapers that he is open to discussing “tax fairness and sharing the burden,” but added a caveat that “professional assets” need to be handled with “care.”
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