France’s ‘garden shed’ tax rates fall for first time in nine years: 2026 rates
Tax is paid on a per m² basis for many property improvements, with fixed values in place for some installations
Homeowners looking to expand their property are being encouraged by the cheaper tax rates
Peter Vanco/Shutterstock
France’s so-called ‘garden shed’ tax or taxe d’aménagement has fallen 4.06% for 2026, in a rare piece of fiscal good news for homeowners.
It is the first time in nine years that the tax has dropped compared to the previous year and follows several years of increases including +1.76% in 2025, +3.4% in 2024, +8% in 2023.
If you are considering a property expansion that is subject to the tax, the government offers a simulation for the expected tax of a project here.
What is the tax and how is it paid?
The taxe d’aménagement is a one-off property tax required for works that require a building permit of any kind (permis de construire, permis d'aménager or déclaration préalable de travaux) and reach a certain size.
This means it is usually levied on major property extensions including new rooms, garages, verandas, and conservatories that are added to existing structures.
It is also applicable to separate outdoor constructions such as sheds (hence its nickname), pagodas, etc, as well as swimming pools, wind turbine installations, some solar panel types and certain other features such as carports and parking spots.
It applies to structures larger than 5m², and where applicable with a roof 1.80m or higher.
The tax must be paid within 90 days of a structure being completed, usually following a declaration of the completed works through the biens immobiliers section of a user’s account on the French tax site.
It is payable in a single sum unless the final value of the tax is €1,500 or above when it is split into two payments, one within the first 90 days of the works being complete and another nine months after.
Further information about the tax can be found in our article here.
Note that this declaration is obligatory – if you do not announce the completion you are liable to penalties, and authorities have recently used AI to uncover undeclared extensions.
In addition, those who buy a home that has an undeclared expansion may be liable for the tax even if they did not construct it.
Declarations are also important due to the impact they have on other property taxes.
Generally, taxe foncière bills increase as a property’s value increases, for example from renovations and other works.
Why has the tax decreased this year?
Unlike several other property taxes in France including the taxe foncière, the tax does not use inflation as a base figure for its calculation.
Rather, it is based on the indice du coût de la construction or construction cost index published by the state statistics body Insee, using data from the third quarter of the previous year.
In Q3 2025, a relative drop of 4.06% was recorded compared to Q3 2024, leading to a subsequent drop in the tax.
The tax uses a fixed-value rate applied on a per m² basis.
There are two rates, one for the Île-de-France region and one for the rest of the country.
The 2026 rates are:
€1,011 in the Île-de-France region (compared to €1,054 in 2025)
€892 in other regions (compared to €930 in 2025)
Departments and communes can then add a percentage-based rate onto this to calculate the final amount.
Communes can add an additional tax rate of 1% - 5% (up to 20% in certain circumstances) to this amount, with departments able to add an additional rate of up to 2.5%. In Île-de-France, this is replaced by a maximum 1% regional cap.
Certain constructions have special rates that differ from the fixed-value above.
Some of these, such as swimming pools and parking areas, have seen a decrease due to the drop in the construction index, whereas others remain at a particular fixed amount.
These include (values given at 2026 rates):
Tent, caravan, and mobile home pitches: €3,000 per pitch (campsite or natural area)
Lightweight leisure dwellings such as chalets: €10,000 per pitch
Swimming pool: €251 per m² of pool area
Wind turbines over 12m high: €3,000 per turbine
Ground-mounted photovoltaic solar panels: €10 per m² of panel surface area (thermal solar panels that produce heat are not taxed)
Parking areas not included in the floor area of a building: the minimum value applicable to initial planning permissions issued from January 1, 2026, is €2,928 per space, which can reach up to €5,857 per space upon decision by the local authority
Note that certain reductions and exemptions for the tax are in place.
These include:
Total exemptions on expansions of 5m² or less, reconstruction work following a catastrophe naturelle, or in line with a risk assessment plan
A 50% reduction for the first 100m² worth of expansion to a main home (including outbuildings), for buildings used for industrial purposes, and certain commercial-focused buildings
A full list of reductions and exonerations is available here, although as of January 13 this website still shows the 2025 rates of the tax and has not been updated to show 2026 levels.
