French property owner form deadline is postponed… again

The deadline to fill in the new mandatory property owner form in France has been deferred for a third time.

The new deadline is Thursday, August 10.

It comes after the website on which the form is found, impots.gouv.fr, has experienced connection problems over the past few days, affecting people’s ability to complete the formality.

The property ownership declaration process is located in the ‘Gérer mes biens immobiliers’ section of the website, once you are logged in to your individual account area. Much of the website is also available in English.

The deadline was initially June 30. It was then deferred to July 31, and then to August 1. But on Tuesday, France’s Economy Ministry confirmed it had been postponed again. French media have stated that in living memory, a tax office deadline has never been put off so many times.

The ministry said that the deferral was “to allow all owners to complete [the form] calmly, and ensure fair taxation”.

Read more: French property form deadline put off for another 24 hours

All residential property owners in France must fill in the form, and the fine for not doing so is initially €150. However, the ministry confirmed that French tax authorities, the direction générale des Finances publiques (DGFiP), would “show goodwill towards latecomers acting in good faith” and “that no penalty will be applied this year”.

The form, which came into force this year, is intended to identify the properties on which taxe d'habitation must still be paid. This tax is no longer due for main homes, but is still payable on second homes.

‘Government overly optimistic’

Secretary general of tax workers' union FO-DGFiP Olivier Brunelle said the new deadline was “a common sense decision”. He said the government had been “overly optimistic… in thinking that the system would work and that everyone would understand", adding: "It was presented as being a '2.0' service, but it's been carried out like a bog-standard public service."

He told FranceInfo: “As we are addressing ourselves to owners, who are generally older, users have found that the finance administration doesn’t speak their language. All of this has caused confusion, and a rise in asking for help. All of this has been difficult to manage.”

Read more: French property form: Why am I asked about visits to our holiday home?

He added the form was not “greatly complex”, and that all it requires is to say “who are the owners, who lives there, the date of the start of the occupancy, and when the occupants may leave…and if the home is empty, then you can say that too”.

However, he said that on some days, some local tax centres had received up to 30,000 messages from people asking for help or with questions.

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