French Debt Counter
Real-time counter of French public debt, tax fraud, and social fraud with live estimates updated every second.
French Public Debt
Real-time estimate based on annual deficit
Fraud Counters
Tax Fraud
Annual estimate: 80-100 billion €
Social Fraud
Annual estimate: 13 billion €
Social Fraud Breakdown
Contribution Fraud
Undeclared work, illegal hiring by employers
Benefits Fraud
Undue benefits through false declarations
Healthcare Fraud
Fraud by doctors, nurses, and health professionals
messages.tax_fraud_breakdown
messages.tax_fraud_breakdown_intro
messages.vat_fraud
messages.vat_fraud_desc
messages.income_underdeclaration
messages.income_underdeclaration_desc
messages.corporate_tax_evasion
messages.corporate_tax_evasion_desc
messages.real_estate_fraud
messages.real_estate_fraud_desc
messages.inheritance_fraud
messages.inheritance_fraud_desc
messages.cumex_fraud
messages.cumex_fraud_desc
CICE Waste
Tax credit for competitiveness - 100+ billion € with minimal job creation
CIR Fraud
Research Tax Credit - Abuse by large corporations for fake R&D projects
messages.fraud_by_sector
messages.fraud_by_sector_intro
messages.sector_btp
messages.sector_btp_desc
messages.sector_restaurant
messages.sector_restaurant_desc
messages.sector_commerce
messages.sector_commerce_desc
messages.sector_services
messages.sector_services_desc
messages.sector_agriculture
messages.sector_agriculture_desc
messages.sector_transport
messages.sector_transport_desc
messages.corruption_counters
messages.corruption_intro
messages.corruption
messages.annual_corruption_cost: ~120 billion €
📊 messages.corruption_breakdown
messages.political_corruption
messages.political_corruption_desc
messages.public_procurement_fraud
messages.public_procurement_fraud_desc
messages.sectoral_corruption
messages.sectoral_corruption_desc
messages.local_corruption
messages.local_corruption_desc
⚖️ messages.major_cases
messages.airbus_case
messages.airbus_case_desc
messages.alstom_case
messages.alstom_case_desc
messages.bygmalion_case
messages.bygmalion_case_desc
Tax Optimization
Legal but morally questionable tax avoidance - lost revenue for the State
Tax losses due to multinational optimization schemes
SystemX IRT Case
Saclay research institute accused of "Super CIR" fraud - fake research projects funded by the State
Double Irish
Irish-Dutch tax scheme used by multinationals to drastically reduce their taxes
GAFAM Optimization
Tech giants pay less than 1% tax in France through transfer pricing
📺 Cash Investigation Revelations
Carrefour-CICE Case
€755 million CICE received while cutting 7,000 jobs
Senate Report "Torpedoed"
All copies of the critical Senate report on CIR were allegedly destroyed
Panama & Paradise Papers
Massive tax evasion to tax havens by French elites revealed
🗑️ Public Money Waste
Public money not used for its intended purpose - Cash Investigation reports and official audits
Professional Training
Only 13% of 30 billion actually serves training - the rest is wasted
📺 Cash Investigation (2013): "The Great Embezzlement" - Élise Lucet reveals 87% of training budget doesn't serve its purpose
Consulting Firms (McKinsey)
State spending on private consultants - McKinsey Affair
📺 Cash Investigation + Sénat (2022-2024): Senate Inquiry: "A tentacular phenomenon" - spending doubled in 3 years
PPP Cost Overruns
Public-Private Partnerships: "budget time bomb" according to the Senate
📊 Cour des comptes européenne (2018): 12 PPPs audited: nearly all had delays (2-52 months) and ~€1.5 billion in cost overruns
CPF Fraud
Personal Training Account scams - phone solicitation, fake training providers
📊 Tracfin (2021): CPF fraud suspicion reports rising sharply - fake training schemes
Estimated Total Public Waste
Training + Consulting + PPP + CPF (documented minimum)
🔍 The McKinsey Affair in Detail
Spending Doubled
State consulting spending went from €379M (2018) to over €1 billion (2021)
Zero Taxes in France
McKinsey paid no corporate tax in France from 2011 to 2020 (Delaware HQ)
Senate Report (March 2022)
"A tentacular phenomenon" - 385-page report on consulting firms' influence
PNF Investigations
National Financial Prosecutor opened multiple investigations for tax fraud and false documents
Retail Theft
Unknown shrinkage in supermarkets and retail stores
Source: Retail Security in Europe 2019 (Checkpoint Systems/Crime & Tech). France is the most affected country in Europe.
Irregular Immigration Costs
AME, emergency housing, and efforts to combat irregular immigration
State Medical Aid (AME): Healthcare for undocumented foreigners - 382,899 beneficiaries (2020)
Immigration Enforcement: Border police, detention centers, deportations
Source: Cour des comptes 2024, AME Budget 2022 (INSEE). Note: These are costs, not necessarily fraud.
Percentage of French Fraudsters
Estimated percentage of population having committed fraud (all forms)
Note: These percentages are not cumulative. The same person may practice multiple forms of fraud. The ~30% figure includes all forms of fraud, from minor to severe.
Source: Estimates based on CREDOC studies, INSEE informal economy data, Cour des comptes reports, and academic research on the French underground economy.
📈 Key Statistics
📚 Sources & Methodology
Public Debt: Data from INSEE and Banque de France. Base: 3,482.2 billion € (Q3 2025). Growth calculated from annual deficit (~155 billion €/year).
Tax Fraud: Estimates from Cour des comptes and Anticor (80-100 billion €/year). We use the 90 billion € average.
Social Fraud: Le Monde and HCFPS 2025 estimate: 13 billion €/year. Breakdown based on Cour des comptes reports.
messages.corruption: messages.corruption_source_text
These are estimates for illustrative purposes. Actual amounts may vary. Sources: INSEE, Cour des comptes, Le Monde, HCFPS.