Like many taxpayers, the property tax notice you received at the start of the school year has undoubtedly left you with a bitter taste. Because, year after year, the bill gets higher. And not just a little. According to the 15th National Observatory of Property Taxes of the National Union of Real Estate Owners (UNPI), the results of which we unveil, it increased by 27.9% between 2010 and 2020. And by 11.4% if we do not only takes into account the last five years. An outbreak that we owe as much to the national revaluation of rental bases, decided each year by Parliament with the finance law (+ 6.1% over 5 years and + 14.2% in 10 years), as rate increases decided by local elected officials.
But these figures hide great disparities. If we stick to the big cities, the prize for the biggest increase over the last decade goes to Nantes (+ 37.5%). Not enough, however, to dislodge Angers, which has remained, for several years, the large city of France at the highest cumulative property tax rates (excluding household waste removal tax) (56.42%) with Amiens (55.87%) ) and Grenoble (54.72%). In the prefecture of Isère, “3.5 months of rent thus go into property tax,” points out Pierre Hautus, director general of the UNPI while the national average is 2.3 months.
For 2021, Orléans recorded the greatest increase (+ 9%) partly offset by a decrease in Teom (household waste removal tax).
On average, however, the increase is contained: in the 50 most populous cities in France, property tax has increased by only 1%, in particular thanks to an exceptionally low rate of revaluation of rental bases (+ 0.1%) due to a very low inflation at the time of the vote of the law of the last finance law.
Satellite taxes add to the bill
"It is no longer necessarily the property tax as such that increases, but all satellite taxes", analyzes Pierre Hautus.
First and foremost is the household waste collection tax (Teom), which is increasing in line with the increase in the cost of collection.
But also under the influence of a "tax on the tax", the general tax on polluting activities, levied by the State on the landfill and incineration of waste.
"Sometimes, some communities even cheat a little by increasing the Teom unrelated to the cost of the collection", explains the director general of the UNPI in reference to the fight won by a collective of Lyon taxpayers, the Canol, against the Metropolis. .
To read also "565 euros of property tax in addition, it is a shock": the owners between grumbling and resignation
At the same time, there is also the special equipment tax (TSE) in two thirds of French municipalities, the Gemapi tax introduced in 2015 for the benefit of inter-municipal authorities exercising competence in the management of aquatic environments or flood prevention.
And, specifically for the inhabitants of Île-de-France, a TSE for the benefit of the society of Grand Paris and a special annual additional tax (Tasa) to finance public transport.
In short, don't throw any more!
The reincarnation of the housing tax
Can this increase come to a halt? We are far from it, in part because of the abolition of the housing tax. "This contributes to the reduction in the fiscal autonomy of local authorities," explains André Robert, general delegate of the Association of small towns in France. Taxes are replaced by state grants which do not fully compensate for the shortfall. This is particularly true in areas that are dynamic from a demographic point of view, where the property tax remains the only lever that can be activated by local authorities.
All these elements put together have increased the proceeds of property tax at an even more frantic rate than its rate since it has grown by 50% in ten years to reach 35.3 billion euros in 2020 (for a total of 32.7 million tax notices distributed).
But all is not dark.
The abolition of the housing tax has nevertheless enabled the 80% of French people who are already totally exempt to save more than 600 euros per year on average.
And the remaining 20% are saving from this year 386 euros with the first reduction of 30% and, from 2023, 1158 €.
But that is only for owner occupiers and tenants.
For landlord owners, that's another story.