We don’t get a lot of emails from the French government so when something comes through with a return address that includes “gouv.fr” it catches your attention. When that is preceded by “Direction Générale des Finances Publiques” it’s especially noticeable since that’s the office responsible for les impôts otherwise known as taxes. We’ve never had a problem, even with our first filing, and now with everything online and generally already filled in for you based on the previous year’s amounts, it’s just a matter of updating the figures and attaching your electronic signature. This email was indeed looking for something from us, but not money.

So what did they want? Our opinion “on the level of your taxes, your public services, or on the use of public money in general. In less than 10 minutes, you can make your voice heard on these important topics.” Sign us up! The website added, “The responses will provide lessons for future budgets.”

Being asked for your input is certainly a compliment but I was fascinated by the additional information that was provided on the voting website. In the pie chart below you can see, in euros, how each 1000 € of public money was spent in 2019. Because I wanted to make a comparison with the US, I put the numbers into percentages and added a few details of what each major category included, in the table below.

Major category	Includes	Percentage of total
Social Protection	Pensions, healthcare, unemployment, assistance	57.2
Sector Expenditures	Transport, culture, environment, infrastructure	15.6
Education	Schools, universities, training	9.5
Government Operations	Costs to run the government	6.6
Federal Powers	Defense, security, justice	6.0
Debt	Public debt repayment	2.8
Research	Medical, scientific	2.3

Source for the table above: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/enavoirpourmesimpots#

For Fiscal Year 2022 here are the top 10 US Government spending categories:

Major category	Percentage of total
Social Security	19
Health	15
Income Security	14
National Defense	12
Medicare	12
Education, training, employment, social serv.	11
Net Interest	8
Veterans Benefits and Services	4
Transportation	2
General Government	2
Other	1

Source: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/americas-finance-guide/federal-spending/

This isn’t the first time that we’ve been asked for our input on how public funds should be spent. Our département solicits ideas from residents for projects that should be included in an upcoming budget and those that receive the most amount of support get funded. The first year that we voted in this “participative budget” we were able to see bird and bat houses added to our neighborhood and the elimination of pesticides in the community.

Note: To see all of our blog posts about filing taxes, please click on the tag “Tax” in the right hand column.

To respond to the questionnaire online: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/enavoirpourmesimpots/consultation-participez

All illustrations are from the government website: https://www.economie.gouv.fr/enavoirpourmesimpots#