Generalized Social Contribution

In France, the generalized social contribution (French: Contribution sociale généralisée or CSG) is a tax created on 18 December 1990 to fund the social protection system (namely health insurance and family benefits) and, since 2018, unemployment benefits. The CSG aims to diversify the financing of social protection, based mainly on social contributions. The traditional system had become questionable because social contributions used to be a burden for employers, for contributions are levied on earnings, i.e. they are part of the labor costs. In addition, only incomes from work used to contribute. The CSG enabled easing the burden of social security contributions on wages, to promote a way of funding consistent with the widespread use of Social Security benefits, and to force all household incomes to contribute (e.g. income from work but also property), contrary to social contributions. The revenues are significant (75 billion euros) and represent almost two-thirds of taxes allocated to social protection (65%). The CSG is currently the second most important tax in France, after the VAT.