Faut-il substituer de la TVA aux cotisations sociales des employeurs ?

To try to reduce business costs by decreasing employer social contributions and by compensating for the drop in public revenues with an increase in the Tax on Added Value would bring about only doubtful or transitory advantages. Such a reform, on a long term basis, would improve neither the situation of businesses nor employment. In an economy without foreign trade, where economic impact is concerned, there is practically no difference between employer contributions and the VAT deductible on investments, which exists at the present moment in France. When foreign trade is considered, the mesure is the equivalent of a devaluation : short term, it means gains in competitiveness and growth, to the extent that wage-earners sustain a loss of buying power, but these gains are transitory and disappear middle-course when the only permanent result is a higher price level.