Tax-news.com – Endeavouring to assuage fears and re-establish public confidence in the wake of one-day nationwide strikes, French President Nicolas Sarkozy has announced that local business tax or ‘taxe professionnelle’ will finally be abolished in 2010.

Expressing his determination to uphold his predecessor Jacques Chirac’s promise to end the highly controversial tax, President Sarkozy has underlined the importance of the measure – vital to maintaining industry in France and ultimately to the preservation of jobs, despite a total cost to the state estimated at EUR8bn.

Created in 1975 – ironically by the then Prime Minister Chirac – business tax forms one of four direct local taxes collected by councils, and represents around half of their tax revenue.

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