“150 euros per cow”: a new tax exemption measure for cattle breeders

News welcomed like a breath of air by some French cattle breeders. The Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, announced this Friday a tax exemption measure in favor of the latter, who have seen their taxes increase due to the increase in the value of their livestock.

“In the 2024 budget, an exceptional measure to support French breeding will take the form of a provision of 150 euros per cow, up to 15,000 euros per farm, or one hundred cows, in order to reduce the taxation of breeders which results from the increase in the value of their stock”, indicated the minister in an interview with the regional daily The mountain.

“This is a strong demand from the breeding world. In these times of budgetary scarcity we still wanted to access it,” added the man who was Minister of Agriculture from 2009 to 2012. Bruno Le Maire specified that the measure would cost “several tens of millions of euros”.

An unprecedented deterioration in cash flow

The National Federation of Farmers’ Unions (FNSEA), the majority union, has been warning the government for months “about an unprecedented deterioration in the cash flow of breeders, due to an increase in the value of suckler and dairy cows due to increases in prices. market and inflation. This leads to an increase in taxes and social security contributions without any real enrichment.”

In short: the book value of cows increases with inflation – even though they do not produce more milk or calves – which ultimately increases the farmer’s taxes. From an accounting point of view, cows are “fixed stock”.

Fight against the decline in livestock numbers

“We must stop decapitalization (drop) of the French cattle herd », asserted Bruno Le Maire during a visit to the Livestock Summit in Cournon-d’Auvergne (Puy-de-Dôme). “We must stop this hemorrhage as we have managed in recent years to stop the industrial hemorrhage. » This measure is in fact seen as a means of combating the decline in livestock numbers and the decline in French production of beef and milk.

Without tax exemption, “breeders could be tempted to sell a few cows” to reduce their tax, which risks resulting in a “loss of production capacity”, underlined the president of the FNSEA, Arnaud Rousseau, on Wednesday during a press conference.

The FNSEA welcomed in a press release a “victory for breeders” resulting from its “determined action” with the minister. On the contrary, the Confédération paysanne, the third agricultural union, estimated in a press release that tax exemption was “not the solution to the decapitalization of herds” and did not resolve “the problem of transmission of farms”.

Distributors and manufacturers will have to make efforts

While professionals also fear paying the price for the government’s desire to lower the cost of food, Bruno Le Maire assured that he “(will) ensure the defense of the interests” of farmers during annual negotiations between supermarkets and their major agri-food suppliers.

Bercy is currently pushing a bill to bring forward the start date of these negotiations in the hope of bringing prices down more quickly. “The drop in shelf prices should not result in an effort by producers but by an effort by distributors and manufacturers,” Bruno Le Maire said this Friday.

In particular, he will ask the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) to ensure “respect for producers’ margins”, in accordance with the Egalim laws which protect farmers’ income.