French taxe foncière bills arriving, inflation means rises

France’s tax authorities have begun sending this year’s taxe foncière bills to property owners, ahead of the payment deadlines in October, and people across the country will be noticing an increase in the amount they have to pay.

This is due to the high inflation rate currently affecting France as this rate is used in part to calculate taxe foncière bills.

Read more: Taxe foncière France’s local property tax: Who pays and the exemptions

People who pay this tax all in one go should already be able to view their bills in their online tax space, and those who pay monthly should be able to see theirs from September 19.

An email should have been sent to those who manage their bill online to notify them of the update.

You can access the statement on impots.gouv.fr by entering your tax number, or through FranceConnect under ‘Documents’, where it can be downloaded as a PDF.

If you have your taxe foncière bill sent to you in the post, you should receive it at some point this month if you pay annually, or at the end of October if you pay monthly.

You should not worry immediately if you cannot yet see your bill online, but if more time passes and it has still not appeared, you can contact the Service des impôts des particuliers (SIP) for help.

If you lose your bill, it is possible to obtain a duplicate through your online tax space.

When must the bill be paid?

The deadline for your taxe foncière payment depends on how you pay.

For those who pay online it will be October 22, while for those who pay via manual bank transfer or in physical form – through a cheque or in cash at a Centre des finances publiques or at an approved newsagent – it will be October 17.

You can also choose to have the money automatically taken from your bank account on October 27 as long as you specify this decision online or by telephone by September 30.

If you currently pay annually but would like to pay monthly in future, you can change your preference at impots.gouv.fr, under ‘Paiements’ and then ‘Adhérer au prélèvement mensuel’ (Begin monthly payments).

If you choose this option before December 15, your first payment for next year will be taken in January.

If you are having difficulty meeting the cost of your taxe foncière bill, you can ask for your payment to be delayed either online or at a Centre des impôts.

Read more: Taxe foncière bills rising by over 10% in several French towns

Bills increase amid cost of living crisis

Taxe foncière bills have risen across France this year because of the high inflation rate.

Base taxe foncière bills are recalculated each year based on the amount that the property could in theory be rented out for - this is known as its valeur locative cadastrale (VLC).

Since 2018, this figure has been calculated based on inflation, which has been pushed up by factors such as rising energy bills and the pandemic, and is increasing more steeply again this year linked to the war in Ukraine.

The Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFIP) tax authority has confirmed a 3.4% rise to the values used to calculate this year’s property tax, the highest since 1989. In 2021, the percentage increase was only 0.2%.

Your final bill will be based on half of the VLC, to which local communes (and in some cases intercommunal bodies) apply a percentage rate, decided on by a vote. This may rise annually, stay the same, or occasionally drop.

This year, most local rates are also rising, with towns such as Strasbourg and Marseille applying a 12.6% and 14% increase respectively.

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