In 2018, less than a year into his tenure as president of France, Emmanuel Macron delivered on a landmark campaign pledge to abolish France’s “Solidarity Tax on Wealth,” known as the ISF. It was a progressive levy that targeted all assets, from real estate to stocks and art holdings, worth more than 1.3 million euros, approximately $1.5 million.
At the time, the act seemed to defy French political gravity. The tax rule had been in place almost continuously since 1982, when leftist President François Mitterrand imposed it to tackle wealth inequality. His successor, Jacques Chirac, briefly abolished it in 1986, but Mitterrand expeditiously revived it in 1989 upon his return to office.
