Income tax: maps of the cities in France where the highest incomes live

If this Wednesday, May 26 marks the 2021 income declaration deadline for residents of departments 01 to 19 and non-resident taxpayers in France, there is still a few weeks left to make this declaration for others: until June 1 for departments 20 to 54 and until June 8 for those from 55 to 95, Réunion and Mayotte.

In order to calculate the tax, the public finance centers base themselves on the reference tax income (RFR) which takes into account all household income, taxable or not.

This indicator offers a means of comparison, provided it is borne in mind that, while the majority of tax households consist of one or two incomes, many others consist of three or more incomes, when a parent pensioner or an active young child lives at home.

At what stage are we "rich"?

Eternal debate.

We have chosen to consider € 50,000 of RFR as the minimum limit of a certain ease, given that it is about twice the average reference tax income (€ 27,780 in 2019), and that more than 12% of tax households declare an income above this threshold.

More and more high-income households

The number of high incomes has increased by 15% since 2015: while 3.95 million had an RFR greater than 50,000 euros in 2015, they were 4.16 million two years later. “It is not illogical to see the number of these outbreaks grow. On the one hand, the number of tax households itself increases by around 2% between the 2017 tax and that of 2019. On the other hand, income generally increases by + 7% over the two years ”, explains Anne Tardieu, deputy fiscal and legal director of the general directorate of public finances (DGFIP) of Yvelines.

However, between 2017 and 2019, "more cyclically, we can observe a dynamic over these two years which is stronger for high incomes than for low incomes", specifies Anne Tardieu.

In his department, nearly 24% of households have an RFR above 50,000 euros, twice the national average.

The outskirts attract high incomes

Along with Paris and the Hauts-de-Seine, the Yvelines are part of the departments where the standard of living of the population is the highest.

No wonder: 43% of households with very high incomes live in Ile-de-France.

“There is probably a phenomenon of gentrification in some municipalities that are more attractive than others with better infrastructure, public facilities, renovated housing, etc.

», Analyzes Marina Robin, statistician of INSEE.

In Ile-de-France, the leading French economic region, where executives represent 30% of employment against 18% at the national level, the strong presence of high incomes can also be the result of "another strategy: the desire to get closer to his workplace, ”says the statistician.

Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the second region to record the greatest number of high incomes: 11% of them are domiciled there.

Then come the municipalities of the Mediterranean coast.

In most of the municipalities located between Marseille and Nice, more than 10% of tax households thus have an RFR greater than 50,000 euros.

The same goes for the Gironde estuary and the Breton coast.

While the presence of high-income households remains stable in large urban areas, it is increasing, by more than 15%, in many municipalities located on the outskirts of metropolitan areas, particularly in the Nantes basin.

"Economic development partly explains this evolution"

New homes have thus been able to settle in the municipalities of the Pays de la Loire region, attracted by their infrastructure, jobs and businesses.

It recorded employment growth of 1.6% in 2018 and the second lowest unemployment rate in France in 2019 (7.1% against 8.4% nationally).

But the increase in the number of wealthy households in a municipality does not necessarily mean that new wealthy households have settled there.

Their number may also change if "households already present in the town have seen their reference tax income increase", underlines Marina Robin.

At the borders, a relative decline of the rich

Conversely, some municipalities are seeing their high-income population decline. In Doubs, Jura, Ain and Haute-Savoie, border departments of Switzerland, twelve municipalities recorded a decrease, ranging from -5% to -11%, in the number of households in the RFR exceeding 50,000 euros. This phenomenon may be linked to the departure of certain households "in search of a living environment and a more attractive property price," indicates the statistician from Insee ". In the French Genevois and the Pays de Gex, real estate and land pressure is strong. Another explanation, according to Marina Robin: “very well-off households have also been able to settle in a country with more favorable taxation like Portugal. "

But it is possible that the decrease is linked only to a question of display of the income of cross-border workers, whose wages received in Switzerland, if they must be declared, are not taken into account in the calculation of the French tax. According to Philippe Levin, director of DDFIP Haute-Savoie, "the drop is linked to the volatility of employment in the Geneva basin". Indeed, the share of high incomes in the municipalities located on the Swiss border remains high. Almost 40% of tax households thus have an RFR greater than 50,000 euros in the municipalities of Péron (Ain) or even Veigy-Foncenex (Haute-Savoie). “It's more of a butterfly effect than a duck falling in mid-flight,” remarks Philippe Levin.

In municipalities where high-income households live, the gap is widening with low-income people. The gap between the minimum standard of living of the top 10% and the maximum standard of living of the bottom 10% is 3.5 at the national level. In the departments of Paris and Hauts-de-Seine, this figure reaches 6.4 and 5 respectively, according to INSEE. In its report on income disparities, the institute stresses that these “inequalities are mainly due to the high standards of living of the better-off”.