Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on October 30, 2025
1 min readLast updated: January 21, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleTotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne argues that the proposed French supertax on multinationals is unworkable, citing legal and double taxation concerns.
PARIS (Reuters) -French oil major TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanne indicated on Thursday that a proposed French supertax on multinationals would not comply with the rule of law and would contravene policies that aim to avoid double taxation for big companies.
French lawmakers on Tuesday approved two surprise tax hikes on multinational companies, including a new levy based on global revenues and the doubling of an existing digital tax.
The amendments - which defy Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu's government corporate tax policies - were both passed during the budget bill's first reading in the lower house, with support from the far-right and hard-left parties. They could still be struck down later in the legislative process.
(Reporting by America Hernandez; editing by GV De Clercq and Bernadette Baum)
A multinational corporation is a company that operates in multiple countries, managing production or delivering services in more than one nation. They often have a centralized head office.
Economic growth is the increase in the production of goods and services in an economy over a period of time, typically measured by the rise in gross domestic product (GDP).
A financial crisis is a situation in which the value of financial institutions or assets drops significantly, leading to a loss of confidence and potential economic downturn.
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