{"id":1118003,"date":"2026-06-03T10:52:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-03T09:52:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/myfood.eu\/2026\/06\/grow-your-purchasing-power\/"},"modified":"2026-06-03T11:11:47","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T10:11:47","slug":"grow-your-purchasing-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/myfood.eu\/en\/2026\/06\/grow-your-purchasing-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow your purchasing power"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Grow your purchasing power<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n

A petition is currently circulating, and it’s hitting the nail on the head: it denounces what its authors call a “tax overdose” and calls, quite simply, for the French to be given back the fruits of their labor and their purchasing power. The accompanying statement is sobering. Every year, economists calculate the “day of tax liberation”: the date when people stop working to finance compulsory deductions and finally start earning for themselves. <\/p>\n\n

In 2025, according to theInstitut \u00e9conomique Molinari and EY<\/a>, this date falls around July 17<\/strong>, the latest in the entire European Union<\/a>. In other words, until mid-July, everything you earn goes into the big tax and social machine. Still according to this study, the tax burden on the average gross salary reaches 54.4%<\/a> when social security contributions, CSG, CRDS, income tax and VAT are added up: to have \u20ac100 of real purchasing power, a French person must first pay 119 in deductions. <\/p>\n\n

But that’s not the most striking thing. The most striking thing is what we don’t see. <\/p>\n\n

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An ordinary day, and the tax system behind it<\/h2>\n\n

Let’s follow an ordinary day.<\/p>\n\n

8 h.<\/strong> You start the car to go to work. At the pump, more than half the price per liter<\/a> doesn’t pay for the oil, the refiner or the distributor: it’s taxes (excise duty, ex-TICPE, then VAT… calculated on top of the tax itself, i.e. a tax on a tax). You fill the tank thinking you’re paying for fuel. What you’re really paying for is tax. <\/p>\n\n

12 h 30.<\/strong> Lunch break, sandwich and coffee. VAT is there, discreetly, on every line of the ticket. On catering, on drinks, on just about everything you consume. <\/p>\n\n

18 h.<\/strong> The supermarket. And this is where taxation becomes truly invisible. The price of the tomato you put in your basket is not just a farm price. It incorporates, in cascade : <\/p>\n\n