Taxe d'habitation: France to go ahead with scrapping housing tax for most wealthy
French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has confirmed the abolition of the household tax (taxe d'habitation) for the 20 percent wealthiest houses. Cutting the tax, which has already been done for most French people, was one of President Emmanuel Macron's election promises.
This is not one rule for the wealthy and another for the poor. The ending of household tax payments for the rich follows the incremental ending of this tax for the rest of the French population.
A total of "80 percent of the French who paid the housing tax saw it decrease by about a third last year" and "they will see it decrease by another third this year, then by the last third next year, so that's on the way," the Prime Minister said on franceinfo radio on Thursday.
Philippe also said that the eradication audiovisual licence fee (formerly the television licence) was not on the table.
Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin had proposed to get rid of this fee. Philippe acknowledged that "given the eventual abolition of the housing tax, we will have to ask ourselves the question of financing the audiovisual and perhaps the licence fee".
"But this question is not currently up for debate, it is not being asked today since this housing tax continues to be the main issue," he explained.
For Philippe, the plan is to remove the housing tax and replace it with a stable resource to fund local municipalities. This “will be the subject of very intense discussions with local authorities". Philippe wants this new resource to appear in the draft budget at the end of this year.
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Photo: AFP
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This is not one rule for the wealthy and another for the poor. The ending of household tax payments for the rich follows the incremental ending of this tax for the rest of the French population.
A total of "80 percent of the French who paid the housing tax saw it decrease by about a third last year" and "they will see it decrease by another third this year, then by the last third next year, so that's on the way," the Prime Minister said on franceinfo radio on Thursday.
Philippe also said that the eradication audiovisual licence fee (formerly the television licence) was not on the table.
Minister of Public Accounts Gérald Darmanin had proposed to get rid of this fee. Philippe acknowledged that "given the eventual abolition of the housing tax, we will have to ask ourselves the question of financing the audiovisual and perhaps the licence fee".
"But this question is not currently up for debate, it is not being asked today since this housing tax continues to be the main issue," he explained.
For Philippe, the plan is to remove the housing tax and replace it with a stable resource to fund local municipalities. This “will be the subject of very intense discussions with local authorities". Philippe wants this new resource to appear in the draft budget at the end of this year.
READ ALSO:
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