I had no debits taken for French residential tax - what should I do?

Reader question: Having paid taxe d’habitation for 20 years on my French second home, last time I do not appear to have been debited. What should I do?

From your query, we assume that usually you do not pay it in one go, on receipt of the bill (the payment date for one-off payments was December 15, or December 20 if paying by internet).

Perhaps you are usually set up to pay it à l’échéance, where the total amount is debited from your account 10 days after the usual payment date, ie. December 25.

Many people alternatively opt to usually pay by mensualisation, with at least ten monthly payments from January to October, based on the previous year’s tax, on the 15th of each month (or the next working day if this falls on a weekend or bank holiday). 

For people who were paying instalments towards 2025’s tax in this way and whose tax bill was more than 2024s, payments would normally have continued into November and possibly December 2025.

In your account at Impots website under Paiements > Impôts and then échéancier you should see if any payments were taken in the course of last year.

Usually, once set up, mensualisation continues unless you request a change, as long as the tax office has up-to-date bank account information.

In the documents section of your account you should also find the avis d'impôt (tax statement) for 2025's tax, and can check this to see if something was paid and if there was an outstanding amount.

If you are sure you were not debited at all for 2025's tax, there are now only very limited circumstances where exemption from taxe d’habitation exists for second homes, which would not apply to you.

So, perhaps the tax office incorrectly classified your property as a main home (and thus exempt from the tax) last year. 

This could have been due to a tax office error or if you made a mistake in your Biens immobiliers online property usage form.

If you have not paid, then you should contact your tax office to clarify the situation, and also to make sure that the problem does not arise again this year. 

The simplest way is to set up mensualisation payments, and make sure the tax office always has your up-to-date bank account details. 

It is still possible to do this now, even though you will miss the usual January and February payments. If the payments start in March, for example, the amounts that would usually have been taken in January and February will be added into the bills for March to May.