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Taxe foncière bills rising by over 10% in several French towns
Base rates depend on inflation, and will rise by 3.4% this year. Local authorities also apply a percentage rate, which may rise, stay the same or occasionally fall
France’s taxe foncière property ownership tax is set to rise this year along with the other household costs that are already increasing with inflation.
Base taxe foncière bills are recalculated each year based on the amount that the property could in theory be rented out for - this is known as its valeur locative cadastrale (VLC).
Since 2018, this figure has been calculated based on inflation, which has been pushed up by factors such as rising energy bills and the pandemic, and is increasing more steeply again this year linked to the war in Ukraine.
The Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFIP) tax authority has confirmed a 3.4% rise to the values used to calculate this year’s property tax, the highest since 1989. In 2021, the percentage increase was only 0.2%.
Your final bill will be based on half of the VLC, to which local communes (and in some cases intercommunal bodies) apply a percentage rate, decided on by a vote. This may rise annually, stay the same, or occasionally drop.
This year, “the majority of [local authority] rates are also rising,” Frédéric Zumbiehl of the Union nationale des propriétaires immobiliers told Le Particulier.
This means that not only is the taxable value of a property rising, but so is the percentage rate applied by a commune. “It is a double punishment!” Mr Zumbiehl said.
Several French cities have already announced taxe foncière increases of more than 10%, including Marseille (+14%), Nantes (+11.5%), Tours (+15.4%) and Strasbourg (+12.6%).
Cities such as Annecy, Bayeux and Amiens are expected to increase bills, but have not yet detailed their exact rates.
Other municipalities, including Paris, Le Havre, Nice and Toulon, have decided to keep their taxe foncière rates the same in a bid to counter the effect of inflation on the VLC.
Taxe foncière bills are sent out in September, with payment normally due in October.
Between 2010 and 2020, rates have increased by 28% on average, three times more than inflation, Le Particulier reports.
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