Is taxe d’habitation still due for 2019?

I recall President Macron was proposing to abandon the taxe d’habitation [a tax due by everyone with use of a property in France on January 1 of that year]. Is it still happening? Will we pay it this year? K.H.

Published Modified

The tax is being phased out and 2019 is the second year of the three-year operation. The intention is that next year will be the last year that most people will pay it.

The right to the reduction (abatement) is related to income and is separate from other ordinary measures which can exempt some residents on low incomes from the tax (exonération) or in other cases (plafonnement) limit it to within a set proportion of your annual declared income.

Mr Macron’s abatement involved a reduction of people’s tax by 30% in 2018. It will be reduced by 65% this year, and then 100% in 2020.

However, this is also means-tested and only applies within these income limits: €27,432 for a single family quotient income tax part (ie. single person), €43,688 for two parts (eg. a couple) and then +€6,096 for each additional half part (for example, a couple with one child is 2.5 parts).

Note that there are arrangements so that those whose income is just above the thresholds also gain some benefit. The government eventually plans to abandon the tax entirely for all main homes but at present this is not expected until 2023. The tax still applies for second homes.