There will therefore be no budget before the end of the year. Part postponed to 2026. To ensure the continuity of the State, until its next attempt, the government published its special law in the official journal. The text, composed of three articles, allows the State to replenish its coffers by continuing to collect existing taxes, as well as to borrow for the State and for several social security organizations.
But the government, which does not want to stop there, intends to apply certain tax measures from the start of the year, the Ministry of the Economy indicated on Tuesday, December 30. Among the provisions envisaged, some will be in favor of the agricultural world and overseas territories, for example.
These measures do not fall within the framework of the special law and will rather resemble extensions of tax measures which will end on December 31, at the stroke of midnight. Also, nothing is won in advance. These texts must be submitted to Parliament for a vote after the resumption of budgetary debates., in January.
Instructions to the Official Public Finance Bulletin (Bofip) have notably been published to temporarily extend the tax exemption for tips and to exempt the payment of part of the transport costs by the employer beyond the legal obligation. Measures which will therefore have to be confirmed by the vote of a finance law. However, despite the lack of budget, these instructions already play a crucial role. They guarantee the beneficiaries of the measures concerned not to be adjusted by the tax administration “even if the provision in question does not appear in the final text” adopted by the parliamentarians, Bercy specified.
Agriculture at the top of the “priorities”
The government must act if it wants to contain tensions. Bovine health crisis, finalization of a free trade agreement between the European Union and Mercosur countries, anger is already igniting in the agricultural world. Thus, to avoid aggravating the political crisis, the executive is placing at the top of its “priorities” measures for agriculture, the retroactivity of which it will defend to January 1, 2026, here again subject to the adoption of the budget.
These measures notably concern tax advantages for farmers, supported by unions and adopted by parliamentarians during the November budget debates. Note among other things: an “income tax exemption for compensation for the culling of animals used for reproduction” under certain conditions, an “extension of the partial exemption” from taxes or levies on compensation paid to breeders or farmers to help with the resumption of activity in the context of health crises.
The government also wants to support organic agriculture by extending the tax credit for this sector – a measure whose cost had been estimated at around 200 million for 2026 by the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin.
Overseas territories and “Coluche niche”
Certain measures intended to support the economies of overseas territories must be applied “without delay”, according to the government, in particular provisions in favor of the regularization of property titles in Mayotte.
On a completely different subject, the executive also wants the doubling to 2,000 euros of the ceiling for donations to associations helping people in difficulty giving right to tax exemption – known as “niche Coluche” – to apply retroactively to January 1, 2026, once again conditional on the adoption of a budget by the two hemicycles.
The State is tightening its belt
Following the adoption of the special law, a decree dated December 29 was published in the Official Journal on Tuesday. This text limits expenditure to services voted for the previous year and deemed essential to continue the exercise of public services, pending a budget for 2026. It will make credits available to ministries to enable them to operate from 1is January. However, by tightening our belts: at this stage, only 25% of the credits are made available. The rest will be subject to “blockages”, warns Amélie de Montchalin but they could be “partially lifted” in the case of “needs confirmed as being essential to the continuity of public services for the first three months of the year”.
On December 30, in a circular detailing the conditions of use of these credits, Sébastien Lecornu asked his ministers “to adopt a principle of prudence and parsimony in the expenses which will be incurred and paid from January 1, 2026”. And the Prime Minister added: “These voted services must be understood not in the sense of an authorization to spend the level of credits opened in 2025 but as the ability to mobilize only the credits essential to continue the execution of public services.”
The watchword? Austerity, restriction and “reinforced budgetary regulation” until the executive succeeds in having its budget voted in due form for the coming year. And the State will also comply. In the public service, “no net job creation will occur during the period of voted services”, warns Amélie de Montchalin.
