Tax 'n' wealth and rock 'n' roll
An ageing rock star triggers a fiscal controversy
SOMETIMES it takes a rock star. By moving to Switzerland to flee punitive French taxes, Johnny Hallyday, France's 63-year-old rock idol, has set off a new debate. Many other high-earning French celebrities have become tax exiles, prompting periodic moral outrage. But this departure is politically embarrassing: Mr Hallyday's friend, Nicolas Sarkozy, is set to be the centre-right's presidential candidate. “If he reforms the wealth tax and inheritance law,” Mr Hallyday told Paris-Match, “well, then I'll come back to France.”
This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline “Tax 'n' wealth and rock 'n' roll”
From the January 6th 2007 edition
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