BBC - French election: (Socialist candidate Francois) Hollande wants 75% tax on top earners

The Socialist favourite in France's presidential election, Francois Hollande, has said top earners should pay 75% of their income in tax.

"Above 1m euros [£847,000; $1.35m], the tax rate should be 75% because it's not possible to have that level of income," he said. Speaking on prime time TV, he promised that if elected, he would undo tax breaks enacted by Nicolas Sarkozy.

The tax proposal was condemned by his political opponents.

Mr Hollande himself renewed his call on Tuesday, saying the 75% rate on people earning more than one million euros a year was "a patriotic act". "It's a signal that has been sent, a message of social cohesion, there is an effort to be made," he explained. "It is patriotic to agree to pay a supplementary tax to get the country back on its feet."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17189739

I support Hollande's proposal, but it will be interesting to see if the French rich see it as a matter of "social cohesion" and "patriotic" duty to pay higher taxes, any more than America's rich do. I suspect they are more likely than America's 1% but not by much, at least according to Sarkozy's ministers quoted in the story.