Can taxe foncière payments be reduced for people aged over 75?

Reader question: With taxe foncière payments looming, I am wondering if there is any way to mitigate the tax once one is over 75 but has a revenu fiscal de référence slightly above the exemption threshold? Last year we were just below the threshold and were exempt, apart from waste treatment charges, but this year we will be just over.

The good news is that if you were exempt last year on the basis of being aged over 75 and having means below certain ‘modest’ ceilings, then you should be exempt again.

There is a rule specifically designed to help people in the kind of situation you find yourself in.

The rule, detailed in the official tax office bulletin, provides a four-year ‘smoothing’ period after someone ceases to qualify for the normal exemption.

In effect, if your avis d’impôt for 2025 income, received this summer, showed income above the ceiling, you remain exempt from taxe foncière for 2026 and also for 2027.

In 2028, there is then an abatement of two-thirds of the taxable base used to calculate the tax (half of the home’s valeur locative cadastrale), followed by a one-third abatement in 2029.

The upshot is that, for the taxe foncière itself, you would pay broadly one-third of the normal amount in 2028 and two-thirds in 2029, before returning to the full amount.

The waste collection tax (taxe d’enlèvement des ordures ménagères) is not covered by these reductions.

If at any point your household income drops again below the relevant ceiling – €19,625 this year for a household with two tax parts – you would qualify for the full exemption again.

If your income subsequently rose above the ceiling once more, a new smoothing period could begin.

Note also that some over-75s whose incomes are too high for this exemption may instead qualify for the plafonnement system.

This can provide a reduction where taxe foncière on the main home exceeds 50% of household income as calculated for the purposes of the relief.

In practice, it is likely to be of most significance to a minority of people who are property-rich but relatively income-poor.