Lower taxes: will childcare assistance increase for the middle classes ?

To help reduce taxes for the middle classes, the government could increase childcare assistance. FREE MIDI ILLUSTRATION – JEAN-MICHEL MART

A parliamentary mission made up of 10 deputies is considering the solutions to put in place to keep the promise of the 2 billion euros in tax cuts announced by the government. Among the avenues considered, that of increasing tax assistance for childcare stands out.

Despite a difficult economic context, which forced the Minister of the Economy to revise the government's growth forecast for 2024 downwards (+1% against the initial objective' +1.4%) and to announce 10 billion euros in budgetary savings, Bruno Le Maire has not given up on honoring the presidential promise to reduce of 2 billion euros in taxes for the middle classes.

Parliamentary information mission

Although questions persist as to the form that this tax rebate should take, we know that concrete proposals should be made to the government by at least next June by a parliamentary mission made up of 10 deputies.< /p>

Among the avenues under study which emerge most widely from the work begun in mid-February, there is that of a targeted measure on the custody of # 39;children. 

"The difficulty of providing child care is a major obstacle to returning to work for many parents", notes the Renaissance deputy Mathieu Lefèvre in the columns of Figaro. "The costs are often considerable and, in certain cases, higher than the remuneration in the event of resumption of employment.

Towards an increase in the tax credit ceiling ?

Currently, parents of children under the age of six who have their children looked after outside their home can benefit from a tax credit equal to 50% of their child care costs. But the expenses incurred are capped at 3,500 euros per child – compared to 2,300 euros before the amendment adopted in 2022 at the initiative of Mathieu Lefèvre. 

For home care costs or for children over 6 years old, this ceiling currently stands at 12,000 euros (+ 1 500 euros per child).

One or the other of these ceilings could thus be increased, which would also have the merit of fitting into the presidential will of "rearm demographically" the country, even if according to Capital,  raising the ceiling on the tax credit for employing an employee at home seems unlikely.

Indeed, not only is it a tax loophole which is regularly called into question by elected officials, but only 2 % of households that have an employee at home reach the spending ceilings in force (between 12,000 and 20,000 euros of expenses incurred per year), according to a parliamentary report dated May 2021. This solution does not ;#39;would therefore have little impact on the middle classes.