Mass is said. On Thursday, October 1, the government presented its long-awaited finance bill (PLF) to the Council of Ministers. The text, which sets state expenditure and revenue for 2027, will then have to be examined by Parliament this fall and could be amended very widely as part of parliamentary work.
The government has confirmed a target of 5% deficit in 2027, after failing to achieve this target this year, with a deficit of 5.4% expected in 2026. "To achieve this, the effort will be based primarily on controlling public spending", said the Minister of Public Accounts, David Amiel.
The Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure, deplored "the international crises which are imposed on us, and which fuel uncertainty" at the origin of "rising interest rates". “Reducing our deficit is possible, others have done it,” he insisted. “The objective of a deficit of 5% [in 2027] must be a fixed framework during parliamentary debates, the sovereignty of France depends on it,” he added.
To achieve this, the government is proposing "an effort of 43 billion new measures", for a total effort to recover the accounts of 54 billion euros. To the 43 billion euros is added "the increase in recovery measures taken in 2026" and "previously", which brings "total efforts" in 2027 to "54 billion euros", according to the government.
The index point for civil servants, which is used to calculate the gross salary of agents, will be frozen, the government ruled in its finance bill, and the categorical measures "will be extremely limited".
Jobs for the State and its operators "will be in decline", excluding reform of initial teacher training and excluding job creation linked to the military programming law. The number of state civil servants and its operators will drop by a total of 1,076 in 2027. Hiring is however planned in the Ministry of National Education, the Ministry of the Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice.
The government plans, for non-scholarship students, to charge 178 euros for registration in BTS and 270 euros for preparatory classes for the grandes écoles. The current "free" nature of these training courses "constitutes a singularity within higher education", justifies the government for introducing these sums which it describes as "modest".
The exceptional contribution to the profits of large companies has been renewed for a third year. However, it will be less significant than expected, since it will be reduced by 30%. In 2026, it brought in 7.5 billion euros.
Still for businesses, the Dutreil pact, a tax reduction which occurs in the context of family business transfers, will not be affected. The government is also offering new support for employee takeovers of businesses with the implementation of the “Papin” pact.
The government intends to extend the differential contribution targeting very well-off taxpayers. It hopes to generate 600 million euros in revenue this way. This tax, created in 2025, aims to ensure taxation of at least 20% of the highest incomes. Single people with more than 250,000 euros of tax income and couples with more than 500,000 euros are affected.
Concerning spending on social benefits, the government plans to freeze housing assistance and the activity bonus. The social minimums (AAH, RSA and old age minimum), will be significantly increased to take into account inflation.
Restrictions for students from wealthy families are also wanted by the government. They will have to choose between APL and “the tax gain for their parents” linked to their attachment to the tax household or to the deduction of alimony paid to them.
The government wants to introduce an exceptional levy on dormant assets deposited with the Caisse des Dépôts (CDC), which should bring in 1.4 billion euros next year. An old bank account that has been lost, a forgotten childhood savings account or the life insurance of a deceased loved one whose beneficiary we do not know, all these abandoned funds, far from disappearing, end up being transferred to the CDC, where several billion euros await to be recovered.
“It is proposed to institute an exceptional levy on the amount of these unclaimed sums held by the CDC, designed as an anticipation of their allocation to the State,” explains the government. “The system does not in any way infringe the rights of holders and their beneficiaries,” he adds. When the sum is claimed, it will be repaid in full, with interest, "without any reduction corresponding to the levy paid, the State must then first return the levy which will be paid through the CDC", it is explained.
A tax on kerosene suppliers is planned, with the aim of financing the development of projects in non-fossil fuels for aviation. This "contribution", which would concern fuel suppliers in "the metropolitan territory", would be calculated "in proportion to the volumes of fossil kerosene released for consumption", according to the government.
To help the decarbonization of air transport, the budget also plans to set up a mechanism to support the emergence of an industrial sector for the production of synthetic aviation fuels (eSAF) in France.
Ministries' appropriations will be frozen, apart from efforts in favor of the Armed Forces. The defense effort will in fact be "preserved" with an increase in the Armed Forces budget of 6.4 billion euros. Budget increases or appropriations for Justice, the Interior, Defense, Housing, Research and Ecology will be offset by savings in other ministries, including that of Labor, which is largely involved.
For this, the PLF for 2027 provides in particular for specific measures on State operators. The France Travail agency will, for example, be affected by cost-saving measures, with a reduction in jobs and a reduction in the use of outsourced services.
The government plans in particular to reduce the State contribution to communities by two billion euros, a contribution which was until now taken from VAT revenues. Communities will also have to make a budgetary effort, of the order of 5.4 billion euros, but their operating expenses will continue to increase "at a level consistent with inflation expected next year", according to the government. A progressive contribution from communities to the budgetary effort will be put in place in 2027. Very small municipalities as well as financially fragile communities and overseas communities will be exempt.
