Gérard Depardieu bids France 'Adieu' after tax rises

If the UK’s wealthy thought the short-lived 50% tax rate was bad enough, they may want to give France a wide berth.

Socialist president François Hollande is pressing ahead with plans to impose a 75% super-tax on income over €1m, and French actor Gérard Depardieu is one resident furious with the plans. Depardieu said he is handing back his French passport and social security card after the tax rises, and is moving over the border to Belgium.

French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault described Depardieu’s behaviour as pathetic and unpatriotic, but Depardieu hit back. ‘I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned,’ he told the newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.

The Life of Pi and Jean de Florette star also said his 2012 tax bill, 85% of his earnings, has been paid in full. In total he’s forked out €145m (£118 million) in taxes over 45 years, he insisted.