Will Smith baffled by proposed French tax increase: âGod bless America During an interview this week with a French TV station, actor Will Smith said he supported the idea of paying higher taxes -- but he was shocked when the reporter told him about a proposal from France's new president to raise the marginal tax rate to 75 percent. I have no issue with paying taxes and whatever needs to be done for my country to grow. I believe very firmly that my ability to sit here â I'm a black man who didn't go to college, yet I get to travel around the world and sell my movies, and I believe very firmly that America is the only place on Earth that I could exist," Smith said. So I will pay anything that I need to pay to keep my country growing. That's when the interviewer mentioned that France could have a 75 percent tax rate on income over one million Euros. Seventy-five? Smith gasped. Yeah, that's different, that's different. Yeah, 75. Well, you know, God bless America. Smith was in Europe to promote his new movie, "Men in Black III."