“When you have your property tax increasing, it’s not the government. (…) It’s your municipality that decides. And it’s a scandal when I hear elected officials who dare to say that it’s is the government’s fault,” the French president said on Sunday.
Words that have “surprised and shocked the mayors”. The Association of Mayors of France (AMF) castigated, Monday September 25, a “controversy created from scratch” according to her by Emmanuel Macron, on the subject of the property tax. During an interview on “20 Heures” on TF1 and Franche 2 on Sunday, the Head of State spoke about the responsibility of municipalities in property tax increases.
“When you have your property tax increasing, it’s not the government. (…) It’s your municipality that decides. And it’s a scandal when I hear elected officials who dare to say that it’s is the government’s fault”, declared the French president.
“During his television interview yesterday, the President of the Republic blamed the mayors of France by reproaching them for ‘daring to say that if the property tax increases, it is the government’s fault’, while recognizing paradoxically ‘that many mayors have not increased it’, reacted the Association of Mayors of France. In this case, 85% of them. This controversy, created from scratch, surprised and shocked the mayors by its unfair nature.deplores the AMF in a press release.
“Destabilized” local taxation
The property tax, a local tax which benefits communities, is paid by the owners of real estate. The property tax base includes several elements. The first is based on “cadastral rental values”, which serve as a basis for calculating property tax and which are indexed to inflation. For 2023, the increase in prices caused by the war in Ukraine has automatically led to an increase in property tax of 7.1% for all owners.
To this 7.1% is added a tax rate voted each year by local authorities. This can increase, decrease or remain unchanged. This year, it is on the rise in 14% of French municipalities.
“No local elected official thinks, or says, that the property tax is a state tax”says the AMF, chaired by the LR mayor of Cannes, David Lisnard. “On the other hand, all elected officials note that the abolition of the housing tax has profoundly destabilized local taxation by concentrating it solely on the property tax. At no time since 2017 has the executive proposed building a renewed framework”she castigates.