Budget 2026: What you will pay with the tax scale freeze

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No tax increases, that was the government's commitment. And yet, with a blank year, the income tax scale would be frozen in 2026, and could therefore hit the wallets of many households. Not easy to accept for some Lille taxpayers: "I pay enough taxes and I don't agree to pay more to help France get out of the crisis," explained one resident. "That's what I call solidarity. It doesn't shock me," judged another resident.

Here's what a blank year means for taxpayers. If your income was below a tax threshold in 2025, it may increase in 2026. Normally, thresholds are raised to keep pace with inflation. But with the freeze, the adjustment would disappear, forcing thousands of households into the tax bracket. Example: a single person, who benefits from a 3% increase and receives €1,460 net per month. With the freeze on the scale, they will be subject to tax, with €73 in taxes per year. And this would affect approximately 300,000 tax households.

Similarly, other taxpayers already liable for tax will also see their contributions increase by moving into the higher tax bracket. A tax increase that doesn't really say its name, according to an economist. "Some households will have difficulty knowing how much more tax they are paying because they won't have the counterfactual where the scale would have been indexed to inflation, so politically, it was easier to pass as a measure than a real tax increase by, for example, increasing rates or that sort of thing," he estimated. The freeze on the scale is expected to bring in €1.2 billion for the government.