Tax to GDP ratios

The tax to GDP ratio in France was fairly stable at around 44% for most of the period between 2000 and 2011 and was significantly higher than the OECD average over the whole period.  In 2010 it was 42.9%, 9 percentage points above the OECD average of 33.8%.   It declined from 43.5% to 42.5% in 2009 but the provisional 2011 figure was back up to 44.2%.

Figure 1: Tax revenue as percentage of GDP 2000 to latest available data

Tax structures

The main observations for France are:

• Taxes from personal and corporate income taxes declined from 11.1% in 2000 to 10.1% in 2011 but were 9.4% of GDP in 2010, below the OECD average of 11.3%.

• The tax ratio for Social security contributions rose from 17.0% in 2000 to 18.1% in 2011 and was almost double the OECD average of 9.5% in 2010.

• Taxes on goods and services declined from 11.5% of GDP in 2000 to 11.0% in 2011 and at 10.7% in 2010 were slightly below the OECD average of 11.0%.

• Property tax revenues were 3.7% of GDP in 2010, double the OECD average.

Figure 2: Tax revenue main headings as percentage of GDP, 2000, 2007, 2010, 2011 

• OECD averages are not available for 2011 as 5 OECD countries have not provided data for that year.
• More comparative information about OECD member countries is contained in the tables linked within the following webpages:
  • Tax revenue trends: tax ratios changes between 2007 and 2011
  • Tax revenue trends: tax ratios changes between 1965 and 2010
  • Tax structures: latest position (2010)
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