2023-10-25 18:28:56
The abolition of the housing tax constitutes one of Emmanuel Macron’s popularity assets on the question of purchasing power. When it was announced by the candidate, during the 2017 presidential campaign, this measure nevertheless provoked a unanimous reaction from associations of local elected officials: don’t touch the housing tax! In an unprecedented way, the Association of Mayors of France even interfered in the electoral debate in order to express its anger.
In a report published Tuesday October 24, 2023, the Court of Auditors nevertheless ensures that the compensation by the State for the abolition of the housing tax has been financially positive for local authorities.
A gain of six billion euros
It was only gradually that the housing tax on the main residence was abolished, between 2021 and 2023. Since January 1 of this year, the tax which constitutes one of the “four old” financial resources of local authorities, dating back to the Ancien Régime and the Revolution, only concerns second homes and vacant accommodation. At the same time, another local tax, this time paid by companies and not individuals, is also being eliminated: the contribution on the added value of companies.
Contrary to the fears of local elected officials, the Court of Auditors estimates in the second part of its annual report on local public finances that the State has more than compensated for these losses of resources. “The terms of offsetting the elimination of the housing tax on main residences and the contribution on the added value of businesses with VAT revenue could permanently generate a net gain for communitiesanalyzes the Court of Auditors. It amounted to nearly six billion euros in 2022.”
This good news comes after the observation, in the first part of its annual report on local public finances, published on July 4, of a “very favorable financial situation in 2022” for local communities. Even if the context is now less favorable “due to less dynamic tax resources and the effects of inflation on spending”.
Mayors not convinced
Vice-president of the Association of Mayors of France and UDI mayor of Sceaux (Hauts-de-Seine), Philippe Laurent nevertheless tempers this observation. “There is confusion between local authorities in general and municipalities in particularinsists to The cross this specialist in local finances. For us, the mayors, it is clear that there has been no compensation down to the euro! »
The compensation mechanism is complex, but can be summed up by a game of musical chairs: the departments gained a fraction of the VAT but lost a part of the property tax (on built properties), the municipalities gained this part of the tax property but lost the housing tax. It is only next year that we will be able to have a quantified and precise assessment of the abolition of the housing tax, which was still only partial in 2022, the scope of the Court of Auditors’ report. There is no doubt that the battle of numbers has only just begun.
Whatever the case, in the eyes of mayors, this reform has “profoundly destabilized local taxation by concentrating it on property taxes alone” and illustrates the poor relations between the State and local authorities. “The dialogue between the national executive and local executives is friendly in form but void in substanceregrets Philippe Laurent. For example, we share the choice to create 200,000 new nursery places by 2030, but it should not be the Prime Minister who decides and announces alone in a forum such a allocation of municipal skills and expenditure. » As a reminder that French Jacobin culture still has beautiful remains.
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