France budget: Taxes favoured over spending cuts

France has unveiled its budget for 2013, avoiding big austerity spending cuts in favour of higher taxes on the wealthy and big businesses.

Measures in the budget include:

A new 75% tax on the richest earning more than 1m euros

 A 45% income tax rate on incomes over 150,000 euros a year

 A freeze in government spending, excluding debt repayments and pensions

The elimination of a ceiling on "l'impot de solidarite sur la fortune", or wealth taxes, so that assets of more than 1.3m euros will be taxed at 1.5%

 The reduction of tax exemptions for loan payments by large corporations

 Capital gains and dividends will now be subject to the income tax regime