Would you pay a tax for the safety of cosmetics / perfumes? Mais oui, en France!

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http://1000fragrances.blogspot.com/2010/01/will-you-pay-tax-for-safety-of.html

Would you pay a tax for the safety of cosmetics / perfumes? Mais oui, en France!

In a previous articlepresenting the reaction of several important names in the

fragranceindustry to IFRA/Bruxelles/reformulation, I was wondering about

thissudden " prise de position " and the things to come. The cost

ofreformulations, the loss of the heritage and sometime the disapprovalof

customers that might see their beloved fragrances changed were mainreasons

discussed on blogs in the past 3 years. But it seems that thereis something new

in the air that would determine the cosmetic giants totake a position against

this never ending story of " safety " .

It seems that now there is a new tax on cosmetics in France startingwith 2010,

something called " impôt de la beauté " . Was this the reasonof the sudden

reaction in Le Monde, early january?

I will give you the text in French as it is presented on the website ofSenat

when it was discussed and adopted in December 2009 - Loi de la finance pour 2010

« Art. L. 5131-7-4. - Les produits cosmétiques définis à l'articleL. 5131-1,

mis sur le marché français, sont frappés d'une taxe annuelleperçue par

l'Agence française de sécurité sanitaire des produits desanté à son profit.

Elle est exigible des fabricants, ou pour lesproduits importés hors de la

Communauté européenne, de leursmandataires.

« Le taux de cette taxe est fixé à 0,25 % du chiffre d'affairesannuel hors

taxes réalisé. La taxe n'est pas exigible lorsque lesventes n'ont pas atteint,

au cours de l'année civile précédente, unmontant hors taxes de 763 000 euros.

(there are more details in the link Article additionnel après l'article 59 bis

because it's very controversial)

The collected tax (0,25% of annual CA, HT) would go to the AFSSAPS (something

like the American FDA). The reason of the tax is that thisagency contributes to

the safety of cosmetic products on the market.

You can imagine that this is not happy news for the cosmetic companiesthat now

in recession would have to pay more for their products. Youmay consider this as

the side effect of all safety concerns, nowtransformed into a big business.

Actually, this would not be a beauty tax but a safety tax for cosmeticsand this

" official recognition " in France might be adopted by othercountries in EU. We

might expect a new pressure on fragrances in thenext future (where sales are

already in a decline).