2023-08-26 04:14:48
Barthélémy Philippe // Photo credit: DENIS CHARLET / AFP
modified to
06:48, August 26, 2023
The government constantly hammers its will not to increase the taxes of the French. And yet, the property tax, of which the first notices of levies will be sent on Wednesday, is exploding in many cities in France. This complicates the owners’ budget equation: +52% in Paris, +25% in Grenoble, +14% in Metz, +10% in Limoges and 9% in Lyon. How to explain the flight of this tax?
The main factor is still and always inflation. The property tax follows the evolution of prices, but with a year’s delay. Result, at the national level, it increases mechanically by 7% in 2023. For the rest, it is the municipalities that vote, each year, the evolution of its rate.
“And why do the municipalities increase the property tax? They tend to answer that it is because they have increasing expenses. They are subject to inflation. But the property tax increases spontaneously by 7%, c “It’s already not bad. Overall, the municipalities are in a rather good financial situation. So, I think that some are exaggerating a little”, explains François Ecalle, former magistrate at the Court of Auditors.
A significant tax for small municipalities
The other recurring argument of local elected officials to increase the property tax is the abolition of the housing tax. His disappearance deprives communities of a financial windfall. But this shortfall has been compensated. “The municipalities received revenue in return and the intermunicipalities received a fraction of VAT exactly for the same amount as what they lost on the housing tax”, details the former magistrate at the Court of Auditors.
Despite everything, the end of the residence tax limits the tax prerogatives of the municipalities. Property tax is now the only significant tax whose rate they can change to raise new revenue. In 2022, its collection brought in 37 billion euros, i.e. almost a quarter of the total tax revenue of local authorities.
1693037596
#property #tax #explodes #cities #France #explain
