The bill was salted for Jean-Pierre Foucault if we are to believe the information on the site Gotham City. The 74-year-old presenter had to give to the ISF (solidarity tax on wealth) a small fortune after having made investments which prevented him from going to the cash register between 2011 and 2015.
It was in the 1970s that Evelyne Jarre’s companion began his career on television. And he traveled a very fine path thereafter by presenting in particular The Academy of Nine (Antenna 2), Who Wants to Be a Millionaire ? (TF1) or even Sacred evening (TF1). These beautiful years allowed him to reap a great fortune. This allowed him to embark on various investments such as an advertising film production company (le Film de votre vie SA, liquidated in 2016) or to be a 25% shareholder in the group of post-baccalaureate schools Mediaschool, in Marseille . He also invested in renewable energies after meeting the entrepreneur Jean-Christophe Bestaux. He thus invested money in two photovoltaic power stations in Guadeloupe: 10% of Petit canal 1 les palétuviers SARL and 8% of Solar farm of Sainte Marguerite SARL. As well as in two companies located in Santo Domingo: 10.5% of Manzanillo power land and 20% of Inversiones tegna caribe. In 2015, he even changed the corporate purpose of his company Parasol Production to add energy production.
This allowed him not to pay the wealth tax (ISF) which he had to pay until 2017 (the year during which Emmanuel Macron abolished it). The website Capital who relays the information notes that in 2015, he should have paid 68,817 euros, « cwhich, with the rate in force at the time, corresponded to assets of approximately 7.5 million euros« . But to avoid this, he was based on the Girardin law, making it possible to exempt investments in Dom Tom from tax, as well as the Dutreil pact, to reduce the ISF by 75%. For this last trick, he had to agree to pass on his heritage, something he did for his daughter Virginie, and he the activity of the company had to be mainly commercial.
But over time, the Fisc considered that Parasol Production no longer met all the conditions to benefit from the Dutreil Pact. In 2017, Jean-Pierre Foucault therefore had an adjustment of 365,394 euros for his ISF for the years 2011 to 2015. The presenter and Evelyne Jarre challenged this decision before the Paris court, then the court of appeal. A battle they lost. It was to him clarified that the company’s turnover from commercial activities was minimal and that this no longer allowed it to benefit from the Girardin law, and therefore from a tax reduction.
« Mr. Foucault does not prove that the assets allocated to commercial activity would represent more than 50% of his gross assets. On the contrary, the data compiled by the tax authorities reveal that the gross assets are mainly made up of marketable securities. Mr. Foucault does not produce any element that would contradict the analysis thus made by the tax authorities. He is content to invoke the only turnover essentially generated by the commercial activity, without producing any accounting document to justify it. Consequently, Mr. Foucault does not prove that the commercial activity would take on a preponderant character« , ruled the court. An opinion shared by the court of appeal: « The company has chosen to use its cash to carry out investment transactions, by acquiring marketable securities, in addition to holdings in renewable energy production companies. Thus, the company devotes part of its resources to investment transactions, and thereby exercises a management activity of its assets, by nature civil. [et non commerciale]. Mr. Foucault does not prove that the assets allocated to commercial activity would represent more than 50% of his gross assets. Cash (investments + cash) represents for the years considered between 79.5% and 89% of gross assets. The turnover obtained by the commercial activity is less than 50% of the amount of the total turnover for each of the years considered.«
Contacted by our colleagues, Jean-Pierre Foucault’s lawyer, Philippe Gosset, did not wish to comment.