TRUE OR FALSE. Are the municipalities, as Emmanuel Macron says, responsible for the increase in property taxes?

“When you have your property tax increasing, it’s not the government. It’s your municipality that decides”, declared Sunday September 24, Emmanuel Macron. The comments caused several elected officials to react on social networks, notably Anne Vignot, the mayor of Besançon (Doubs), who assures that she has not increased the property tax in her municipality. “You increased it by 7.1% in all municipalities: you, not us”she wrote to the president.

The majority of municipalities did not vote for the increase

This figure corresponds to the basis for calculating the property tax, which applies automatically in all municipalities in France. It is revalued each year, and increased in 2023 by 7.1%, due to inflation. The increase was voted on in Parliament during the examination of the finance bill, where the elected representatives are mainly Macronists. So the government plays a role in increasing property taxes.

For their part, few municipalities have chosen this increase. According to a study by the general directorate of public finances, only 4,875 municipalities voted to increase the property tax between 2022 and 2023, or 14% of them. Some municipalities, such as Paris, have however decided to increase well beyond 7.1%.