A l'UM la science [S01-ep17]: From tax equality for men and women to the CAD/CAM laboratory

This week on A l'UM la science, Lise Chatain, lecturer at the Faculty of Law and Political Science, tells us all about tax equality within couples. In the second half of the program, François Bertrand welcomes us to the CAD/CAM laboratory at the Faculty of Odontology.

To introduce this program, I've chosen to talk to you about a childhood memory: "la soirée comptes". Forget the log fire and "Once upon a time", I'm talking about that monthly rendezvous when, in cathedral-like silence, my brother, my sister and I would watch our parents sitting around the living room table, brow furrowed and noses plunged into the past month's accounts. In front of them was a single payslip, my father's, a single bank statement from their joint account, a single stack of bills in both their names, and a single tax statement for our household. In our case, the community of life clearly corresponded to a community of interest.

Thirty years on, the " accounts evening " of most couples has little in common with this childhood memory. On the dinner table, you'll more often find two pay slips, two separate bank statements, sometimes with a third statement for the joint account used to settle joint expenses when these are not directly shared between the two spouses. These changes in practice correspond to the sociological evolution of the couple and the family, and yet, in the midst of this increasingly individualized paperwork, married or civil-union couples still have one and the same tax return.

A common tax system generates many inequalities within the couple. These inequalities are quietly present as long as the heart is vibrating, but are all the more striking when the couple breaks up.

So why, in France, does the sacrosanct principle of tax equality stop at the couple's and the family's doorstep? That's the question we're asking today with our guest. Lise Chatain is a lecturer at Montpellier's Faculty of Law and Political Science, and her work on tax equality has led to numerous publications.

In the second half of the program, we take you to the Faculty of Dentistry. François Bertrand takes us on a tour of the computer-aided design and manufacturing laboratory. And what do they make? Teeth!

At UM la science you've got the program, here we go!

Production: Université de Montpellier/Divergence FM
Animation : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Interviews : Aline Périault/Lucie Lecherbonnier
Reporting and editing : Lucie Lecherbonnier
Direction : Adeline Floch'/Anna Demeulandre

Listen to the "A LUM LA SCIENCE" program on Divergence FM 93.9