De Gaulle once said in 1962 “How can you govern a country which has two hundred and forty-six varieties of cheese?”
This may explain the habit of the French administration of complicating things, so that every new rule or tax has dozens of exceptions. And local taxes are no exception.
Contradictory news headlines on Local Taxes
- The good news was that Macron announced the end of one of the 2 local taxes called Taxe d’habitation.
- The bad news is that a supertax on second homes based on the same taxe d’habitation is being raised from 20 to 60% in certain cities.
What will likely happen is that the taxe d’habitation will be phased out over 3 years for most of the population excluding high earners and replaced by more tax on petrol or cigarettes.
And the supertax on second homes will be maintained and even increased in cities where there is deemed to be shortage of housing compared to local demand.
Which towns will have the second home tax in 2018 ?
Of the 60 towns in the Alpes Maritimes and 30 in the Var who were authorised to impose this supertax, luckily only 23 towns in the Alpes Maritimes and 9 in the Var have imposed it.
In the Alpes Maritimes it is Nice and many of the towns near Sophia Antipolis (Mougins, Valbonne..) who have adopted the supertax but not Cannes, and in the Var it was mainly towns near Toulon and St Raphael - you can get the precise list from these 2 articles from the local papers: Nice Matin report on supertax towns, Var matin report on supertax towns
So does this sound like another French saying “Change everything, so that nothing changes.” ?
Not quite, as the winners are everyone except second home owners in certain towns, car drivers and smokers !
This may explain the habit of the French administration of complicating things, so that every new rule or tax has dozens of exceptions. And local taxes are no exception.
Contradictory news headlines on Local Taxes
- The good news was that Macron announced the end of one of the 2 local taxes called Taxe d’habitation.
- The bad news is that a supertax on second homes based on the same taxe d’habitation is being raised from 20 to 60% in certain cities.
What will likely happen is that the taxe d’habitation will be phased out over 3 years for most of the population excluding high earners and replaced by more tax on petrol or cigarettes.
And the supertax on second homes will be maintained and even increased in cities where there is deemed to be shortage of housing compared to local demand.
Which towns will have the second home tax in 2018 ?
Of the 60 towns in the Alpes Maritimes and 30 in the Var who were authorised to impose this supertax, luckily only 23 towns in the Alpes Maritimes and 9 in the Var have imposed it.
In the Alpes Maritimes it is Nice and many of the towns near Sophia Antipolis (Mougins, Valbonne..) who have adopted the supertax but not Cannes, and in the Var it was mainly towns near Toulon and St Raphael - you can get the precise list from these 2 articles from the local papers: Nice Matin report on supertax towns, Var matin report on supertax towns
So does this sound like another French saying “Change everything, so that nothing changes.” ?
Not quite, as the winners are everyone except second home owners in certain towns, car drivers and smokers !
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