The Premier and the Fisc

French taxpayers have grown accustomed to hearing Premier Jacques Chaban-Delmas exhort them to make sacrifices for their country and its economy. Thus they were a bit surprised to read in the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaine last month that Chaban had paid not a centime in income taxes on the approximately $30,000 a year he earned between 1966 and 1969. One year, in fact, he had asked the fisc (tax bureau) for an $800 refund. It was all perfectly legal; Chaban had only taken full advantage of exemptions contained in the country's cumbersome, inequitable tax laws. But as Le Canard observed, he had established "a French record difficult to beat."

To make matters worse, the paper has now published a 1970 letter from Chaban to Edouard Dega, then a Paris income tax inspector. Le Canard implied that Chaban had tried to use his official position to bring pressure on the fisc. Since then, Dega has been arrested on charges of helping rich Parisians to cheat on their taxes, and is currently in Fresnes Prison.

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