> France is #1 in the EU for public spending [1].

That's a well known overstatement that comes mainly from the fact Pension system, education system AND health care system are almost entirely state-owned in France. You can find the same pattern in some Scandinavian country btw, France is not an exception.

> There is a reason why so many rich French people live in Belgium or London.

You can say the same with British and American near the Leman-lake /Zug in Switzerland. Fiscal optimization is everywhere.

> There is a reason why when Peugeot merges with Fiat-Chrysler the new company is headquartered in Amsterdam.

That's not surprising, Holding companies always love specific countries for legislation/taxes reasons. That include Netherlands, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Ireland. Almost every European major multi-national has an holding in one of these.

> If you're a company and your turnover is greater than EUR760k annually then there is a special, additional tax on your advertising spending.

That I totally agree with you. This is a good example of terrible case by case politic bullshit.

It is certainly not an overstatement, and the issue of tax goes far beyond what you may see as an individual (for example, overall labour costs [1]). France is not an exception in its organisation, in fact its health care system is LESS state-owned than, say, the UK's. But it spends a lot, taxes a lot, and, to compound the issues, is not flexible.

You seem to actually agree that France has problems with its legislation and tax in the rest of your reply...

Edit: The graph that you posted in you reply below is obviously not the same metric. It states it is "general government" spending while I mentioned "public spending". But even so, your graph shows France ahead of Germany and the UK.

[1] https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...

> It is certainly not an overstatement. As you say, France in not an exception in its organisation, in fact its health care system is LESS state-owned than, say, the UK's.

It is. Especially if you compare with the public spending/GDP collectively [1]. It is currently lower than USA and right in the average of OECD.

> You seem to actually agree that France has problems with its legislation and tax in the rest of your reply...

I totally agree with that. I disagree with the fact it is a taxe hell. In my experience, as a European who lived in several countries including France, it is in the average of Europe.

That said, I agree with you about the red tape / administrative burden.

[1]: https://data.oecd.org/chart/5Zub