Pay your hospital costs, your children's canteen bill or your parking ticket at… your tobacconist. From February 24 (or March 4 for some), more than 600 tobacco shops located in ten departments (Corrèze, Côtes-d'Armor, Corse du Sud, Gard, Loire, Marne, Oise, Haute-Saône, Yvelines , Vaucluse) will offer taxpayers to settle their invoices, taxes and other local taxes (housing or property tax) in their business.
Several months ago, the Directorate General of Public Finance (DGFiP) launched a call for tenders to "multiply the payment locations, get closer to the taxpayers' homes and offer them longer hours. The national confederation of tobacconists, associated with the Française des jeux, won this contract by proposing, if this first test phase is validated, to generalize this service, in the long term, in more than 6,000 tobacco shops throughout France. In April, nine new departments will offer this possibility before full deployment in the summer of 2020, if Bercy gives its approval.
Scan your tax sheet like your Loto ticket
How will it work? "For the taxpayer, it will be enough to come to his tobacco shop with the bill he will want to pay, explains Philippe Coy, the president of the National Confederation of tobacconists. On the machine where you usually scan and pay for your Loto ticket, you will be able to scan the QR code that will appear on your invoice or tax slip and have access to different types of payment, by card or cash. "
And if your tobacconist can cash you, he will not know if your payment allows you to pay your HLM charges, your conviction or your property tax. "The idea is obviously to maintain the tax secrecy of taxpayers, we assure the DGFiP. We have also set a ceiling of € 300 for cash payments. By bank card, if the expense is higher, the taxpayer can pay the full amount. "
But beware: tobacconists, who have followed distance training to "answer simple questions on collection methods" allowing them to be certified by Bercy, have not taken tax courses. "If the taxpayers ask questions, the tobacconists will send them back to the tax centers," we slip in Bercy.
2 million payments expected each year
This is where, until now, most of the parties have been traveling to settle these payments. And, if they will still be able to do so - but payment in cash is prohibited in many treasuries -, the DGFiP still hopes that this new local service will relieve the tax centers. "We estimate that around 2 million payments will be made each year to tobacconists, plans Bercy. If the majority of taxpayers today favor paperless payments, certain more fragile profiles always come to the counter. "
How much will it cost? Nothing for the taxpayer. But for each act, the state will pay € 1.50 to the tobacconist. This new service should therefore cost, if Bercy's estimates are correct, around 3 M € in public coffers.
