Bercy believes that some owners do not pay enough and wants to re-evaluate the cadastral files. “Is it legitimate to maintain a tax on having a toilet or running water in your home?” asks the president of the real estate site, which calls for a tax on the surface area rather than the “quality” of the housing.
:quality(50)/2023/07/07/64a7df4c5fe71_placeholder-36b69ec8.png)
Published
Reading time: 3min
:quality(50)/2023/10/19/jolly-titre-653167ee060d5331728048.jpg)
The president of the real estate site Particulier à Particulier, Corinne Jolly, believes on Wednesday November 19 on franceinfo that the reform of the property tax announced by Bercy was “cosmetic” and aimed above all to “fill the coffers” of the State.
According to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, around 7.4 million housing units, or 10% of the real estate stock, do not pay enough property tax due to errors in estimating surface areas or equipment. The administration will therefore carry out an automatic re-evaluation of the cadastral files from next year.
For Corinne Jolly, this reform raises questions of equity. “It’s not very fair overall,” she affirms, recalling that the calculation “still relies on cadastral rental values which have not been updated for decades”. According to her, what the government is proposing is an update “easy” but disconnected from market reality. The goal is to make a reform that allows “to fill the coffers”.
The criteria taken into account in the evaluation include the surface area of the accommodation and its comfort elements, such as running water, bathtub or heating, to which additional square meters are associated. “Is it legitimate to maintain a tax on having a toilet in your home? Is it legitimate to maintain a tax on having running water in your home?asks Corinne Jolly, believing that these amenities are standard today and should no longer be considered signs of luxury.
This revision could result in several dozen additional euros per owner, at an average of 12 euros per square meter added, according to the General Directorate of Public Finances. The taxpayers concerned will be able to contest the increase if they consider their equipment to be poorly valued.
Property taxes have already increased by 37% in ten years, twice as much as inflation. Corinne Jolly calls for simplification: “On the contrary, the calculation should be enormously simplified,” by pressing it “on very simple parameters such as surface area, rather than trying to estimate the quality of housing. It is very difficult to update on tens of millions of housing units.”
