Today, what is the relationship of the Varois to tax?
It is no different from what we observe at the national level: the consent to tax is not particularly called into question, but we sometimes notice questions. For example on the functioning of public services, particularly with regard to health or justice.
On the other hand, I can tell you that the 2023 tax return campaign took place in good conditions in the department: we can consider that the people of Var normally carry out the process and that there is no problem with tax compliance. .
Do you see a real need to understand the use of taxes on the part of taxpayers or simply mistrust?
I don’t think we can talk about mistrust. Of course, there are sometimes tensions in the reports, as we observe today in society, and then a lot of things are said… This operation “Get some for my taxes” is there to give transparency on this which is financed by taxes and which is sometimes a little lost sight of.
And then there is also consultation, which allows taxpayers to give their opinion on tax. On this subject, we know that some want to say what they think, knowing that it should serve to feed the main orientations of the next finance law, in the fall of 2024.
Doesn’t reconciling with taxes amount to trying to restore the image of the state, which has been tarnished for some time?
Maybe, but that’s not the point. It is above all about transparency and clarification.
We would therefore go beyond the exercise of communication…
There is a communication component in this approach and it is true that Public Finance is usually a discreet administration. Communicating like this is a change of mentality for us. But it is communication in the good sense of the word. It is a question of remembering what public money is used for.
A concept that we have sometimes forgotten. You can always ask the state for more, but that costs money. We must therefore ask ourselves what we are prepared to finance in order to obtain such and such a benefit. It is perhaps something that our fellow citizens have a little less in mind.
On the platform “To have for my taxes”, it is still difficult to find very precise information on the distribution of taxes. Are platform improvements planned?
We wanted to quickly display accurate and as local data as possible. What is presented is not exhaustive and, above all, perfectible. Indeed, it is a first draft of the transparency operation, in the sense that we wanted to shed some light. But the goal is of course to go further.