‘Kindly collect excessive tax from us’ French Wealthiest figure’s demand

Some of France's wealthiest citizens, including the billionaire heiress of L'Oreal and the head of oil gigantic Total, insisted the government on Tuesday to tax them additional to help to resolve the country's economic difficulties.

In a petition posted on the website of weekly magazine Le Nouvel Observateur, 16 company owners, business leaders and super-rich persons called for the formation of "a precise contribution" that would target wealth without tendering capital flows.

The petition follows a latest call by U.S. billionaire Warren Buffett for U.S. government to enhance taxes on himself and other especially top earners to contribute to severity efforts.

In France, President Nicolas Sarkozy is already setting up to axe some tax immunities that advantage the richest as he endeavors to squeeze some 5-10 billion Euros in an additional funds in the 2012 budget following a market rout that has tinted concern over French public finances.

Valerie Pecresse, Budget Minister said this month that the government was finding out on a new contribution from taxpayers makings more than 1 million Euros ($1.41 million) a year.

"We are aware of having advantaged from a French system and a European atmosphere that we are closed to and which we hope to assist maintain," said the petition, signed by the chief executives of advertising group Publicis, bank Societe Generale and the president of Air France.

Sarkozy, who confronts a harder battle for re-election in April, primarily planned to raise an additoonal 3 billion Euros next year by clamping down on tax breaks as he seeks to trim the 2012 deficit to 4.6% of GPP from a forecast 5.7% this year.

But weak second-quarter economic development and Standard & Poor's reduce this month of the U.S. credit rating have compelled Paris it requires to implement more straight away to hold up its AAA rating, important  for the firmness of the Euro zone as it tussles with its debt catastrophe.

"When the public investments' deficit and the forecast of a deterioration state debt threaten the future of France and Europe and when the government is asking each person for unity, it seems essential for us to donate," the petition said.