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France’s 2023 Budget means tax rises for second-home owners

The Local France
The Local France - [email protected]
France’s 2023 Budget means tax rises for second-home owners
Photo by Philippe HUGUEN / AFP

More second homeowners in France could face a hike of up to 60 percent in property tax bills, after the finance bill allowed more communes to impose an additional surcharge on bills for holiday homes.

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Even though France’s taxe d’habitation (householders’ tax) has been all-but phased out for most French residents, second homeowners are still required to pay it.

An amendment to the Budget, adopted on first reading using Article 49.3 powers, extends to new areas the possibility of imposing a surcharge on second homes that could increase bills by as much as 60 percent, and allows small towns and villages to apply the surchage.

Since 2014, municipalities in "zones tendues” - areas with a housing shortage - have been able to apply a surcharge to taxe d’habitation bills for second homes. The surcharge was originally set at 20 percent, but has been adjustable between five percent and 60 percent since 2017.

READ ALSO Why French homeowners face higher property taxes in 2023

This year, city councils in cities such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Biarritz, Arles and Saint-Jean-de-Luz voted to increase the tax at the maximum 60 percent.

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To date, 1,136 larger towns and cities in France have been able to apply the charge. However, following the new Budget municipalities with fewer than 50,000 inhabitants will be able to apply the additional charge to second homeowners.

Cities must be able to demonstrate significant second-property rates and that property purchase and rental prices are higher than the national average in order to be eligible, but it is believed the new rules could be implemented in up to 4,000 additional towns.

Precise details on which towns and cities will be eligible have yet to be set out, but will be revealed when the decree is published in the Journal Officiel. 

According to the Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) a total 22.4 percent of the municipalities authorised to levy a surcharge on taxe d’habitation for second homeowners did so in 2022. 

To date, the 60 percent highest rate has been applied in 73 communes - notably Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux, but also Anglet (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) and Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique). 

According to national statistics body Insee, France had 3.2 million second homes in 2017, six out of 10 of which were located on the coast or in the mountains. In Contamines-Montjoie in the French Alps, 84 percent of properties are second homes. 

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