2024 property tax: buyer or seller, who should pay it this year?

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If you sold your house or apartment in 2024, you are the one who must pay the property tax. The owner on January 1 of the year is in fact liable for this tax. And this is the case even if you have agreed with the buyer to share the bill.

This is an expense that owners could do without. This Wednesday, August 28, the property tax notice non-monthly paying taxpayers are put online on the impots.gouv.fr website by the tax administration. And the bill is likely to hurt again, since after a surge of 10.8% on average in 2023, it is at a increase of at least 3.9% that the households concerned should expect in 2024. But are you, specifically, concerned this year by the payment of this local tax reserved for owners? And this question, you are probably asking yourself if you have just purchased a property.

Please note that if you purchased your home in 2024, it is up to the owner of the house or apartment on January 1st to pay the tax bill. Article 1415 of the General Tax Code specifies that the property tax on built properties, but also that on unbuilt properties (for land for example) just as the housing tax on second homes is established “for the entire year based on the facts existing on January 1 of the year of taxation”. In other words, Property tax is due for the entire year by the owner on January 1 of the year. And therefore by the seller if the transaction took place in 2024.

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The seller must pay the tax, even if there is an agreement with the buyer on a division

If it is indeed the former owner who receives the tax notice, the buyer is not strictly speaking exempt from property tax and does not necessarily escape the payment of this tax. Indeed, the deed of sale may include a distribution of this charge “pro rata temporis” between the two parties to the contract. In concrete terms, if you took possession of the premises on July 1, such a sharing amounts to dividing the property tax payment by two, the “reimbursement” by the buyer taking place at the time of the sale, based on the amount of the property tax for the previous year.

But, whether or not there is an agreement on sharing the property tax, it is automatically the former owner who will have to pay it to the tax authorities. This was confirmed on June 4, 2024, by the Ministry of Public Accounts in a written response to Les Républicains MP Ian Boucard. “This agreement does not concern the tax administration and does not in any way modify the obligation of the owner of the property to pay the full tax on 1 January.”the government explains, without any possible doubt.