In case you've missed it, these are some interesting times in French politics, as on Wednesday evening Michel Barnier became the first French prime minister in more than 60 years to be toppled by parliament.
You can follow the latest on that breaking news story HERE, but away from the political turmoil the fall of the Barnier government is likely to hit many French residents in the wallet.
Budget
The issue that brought the government to this crisis is the 2025 Budget - in an attempt to tackle France's spiralling budget deficit, the budget included €60 million in savings.
This made it unacceptable to both Marine Le Pen's far right and the leftist alliance known as Nouveau Front Populaire. Faced with the impossibility of getting the budget through parliament, Barnier resorted to the constitutional power known as Article 49.3, which triggered the no-confidence vote.
But the successful vote didn't just bring down Barnier, it also leaves France without a 2025 budget with just four weeks left until the end of the year.
READ ALSO What happens next after the fall of the French government?
This is likely to cause turmoil on the financial markets and for France's credit rating - which could lead to a rise in interest rates and an increase in the cost of living.
In order to avoid a US-style 'shutdown' (in which public sector employees don't get paid), the most likely solution to the immediate problem of the lack of a budget is for France is to make an emergency request to parliament to 'rollover' the 2024 budget into 2025.
This would avoid an immediate crisis, but would have serious knock-on effects for taxpayers - principle among them that tax brackets would not be adjusted for inflation.
Who does this affect?
This refers to income tax brackets - so it would only affect people who have income in France and therefore pay impôt sur le revenu (income tax).
Property tax bands are set by local authorities and are in any case not billed until the autumn of 2025.
The effect of not revising income tax bands to reflect inflation would be twofold - people on low incomes who normally wouldn't pay income tax would be charged for the first time, while people who do normally pay income tax could find themselves moved into a higher band.
Finance minister Antoine Arnaud told FranceInfo that according to the government's own estimates an extra 380,000 low earners could be brought into the tax system, while 17 million taxpayers could face paying taxes at a higher bracket.
People who have their taxes deducted at source - mostly employees - would face new tax brackets being applied from January.
Those who make an annual declaration and then pay their bill - generally self-employed or small businesses - would not be charged until the usual time for tax payments (from September) but would be charged the higher rate for the months when the 'rollover' budget was in effect.
Couldn't this be corrected in 2025?
The first priority for any new government would be to try and get some kind of new budget passed, and that could include a mechanism to correct or repay people who faced tax hikes as a result of the political impasse.
This would, however, require first of all a new prime minister managing to assemble a government, and secondly parliament agreeing to pass some kind of budget or financial bill.
At present any kind of timetable for when or even if that will happen is very unclear.
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