Reader query - garden sheds

YOUR article A shed load of ideas in May interested me as I had just installed an abri de jardin but had discovered that its 9m2 surface area meant I should apply to the mairie for a permis de travaux.
I was shocked to get a bill for urban taxes – with €416 for the Taxe d’aménagement plus €26 for Redevance d’Archéologie Préventive.
As the shed cost €2,500 with base, flooring and painting, this is a large extra cost. I gather this is a one-off tax but surely I should have been told when buying? B.L., Malaucène

THE Taxe d’aménagement is, as you state, a one-off tax.
It was created in March, 2012, by merging together three old taxes (taxe locale d’équipement in communes, taxe départementale des espaces naturels sensibles and the taxe conseils d’architecture et d’urbanisme) on all work to modify property use.

It is a method of funding communes introduced by the last government after direct funding was reduced.
However, there were nine different categories of buildings under the old system and now there is one - with people installing an abri de jardin paying about seven times more than previously. There are allowances for some types of work, with house extensions getting a 50% discount on the first 100m² of the new total area of the house.

The government sets values for each square metre of surface area – this year it is e712/m² and then the commune and department add in their own percentage: between 1 and 5% for communes and up to 2.5% for departments.

Critics say it tempts people into fraud by not declaring new buildings. The 2013 loi des finances gives local communes the option to exempt garden sheds from this tax.

Garden companies Truffaut and Jardiland said they had had no complaints but they would look at how it could be handled as departments varied on how they applied the tax.