Abstract
Introduced by the Ordinance of 15 August 1945, the National Solidarity Tax—impôt de solidarité nationale—was the first wealth tax established in France. It consisted of a tax on the assets held by individuals on 4 June 1945, but also of a levy on wealth acquired between 1940 and 1945. More than two million citizens filed declarations that were thoroughly checked by the Administration de l’Enregistrement, which was responsible for this tax. In a context where the extent of tax evasion was denounced by all, and given the financial and moral stakes involved, all possible measures had to be taken to limit tax evasion and detect tax evaders. Indeed, the published statistics show the scale of the controls and adjustments. The originality of this article lies in the fact that it compares the official instructions and the aggregate data with the findings from the wealth tax returns of Parisian taxpayers. This micro-historical approach makes it possible to examine the interactions between controllers and taxpayers and sheds light on the crucial role played by auditors in the fight against tax evasion.
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Notes
- 1.
There was also a proportional levy on companies and legal persons, which is not included in this study.
- 2.
About 15% of tax households.
- 3.
Before it was abolished in 1969, the Administration de l’Enregistrement, des Domaines et du Timbre was responsible for transfer duties, and in particular inheritance tax, which became progressive in 1901. Hereafter, we will refer to it as the Enregistrement, as contemporaries did.
- 4.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
This argument had served the detractors of the tax. In their eyes, far from being a tool for fiscal justice, the ISN would aggravate the inequalities: the extent of the tax evasion would penalise honest taxpayers.
- 8.
On the 17th of January, the census of gold, foreign currency, and foreign securities kept in France was also ordered.
- 9.
From 1941 onwards, bearer shares had to be deposited in the ‘Caisse centrale de virements des titres’.
- 10.
Small-denomination notes, which were not affected, accounted for only 1.8% of the total currency in circulation.
- 11.
Note du receveur municipal de Villejuif, 22 May 1945, in File Litigation cases conducted by the Special Tax Evasion Control Unit, Centre des archives économiques et financières (CAEF), Savigny-le-Temple, B 0050272.
- 12.
Instruction 45.1177 of 5 June 1945 required stockbrokers, securities brokers, banks and financial institutions to register, after checking, the names and addresses of the persons for whom they sold or had sold securities. The Minister’s office, alerted to the lack of identity checks by financial institutions opening accounts before the start of the banknote exchange period, asked them to strengthen controls on withdrawals. This would make it possible to control purchases of public annuities just before the exchange of notes, which, having not given rise to any income and therefore being recorded on the coupon slips, could have escaped taxation. According to the economist René Courtin, this was a ‘huge hole left in the net, through which many fish, big and small, could pass’ (‘Une lacune de l’impôt de péréquation nationale’, Le Monde, 2 July 1945) .
- 13.
Instruction 45.2515 of 25 October 1945 on tax adjustments.
- 14.
It should be noted that assets with a material basis abroad (real estate, business assets) were not subject to ISN.
- 15.
We also include in this group the bosses of the restaurant and hotel industry.
- 16.
The same was true for proving the seniority of cash owned in 1940.
- 17.
Réponse à l’inspecteur de l’Enregistrement, March 1948, Archives de Paris (AP), Paris, 1600W1139, file 6203.
- 18.
Underlined in red by the controller.
- 19.
Fiche de contrôle, 15 February 1948, AP, 1600W185, file 5885.
- 20.
Réponse à l’inspecteur, op. cit.
- 21.
Fiche de contrôle, 14 May 1947, AP, 1600W48, file 406.
- 22.
Note, 17 October 1954, AP, 1600W68, file 2561.
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Rabault-Mazières, I. (2023). Detecting Ordinary Tax Evaders: The Example of the 1945 National Solidarity Tax in France. In: Guex, S., Buclin, H. (eds) Tax Evasion and Tax Havens since the Nineteenth Century. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18119-1_16
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