Put an end to administrative complexity. This is the objective of the senators who adopted on Tuesday, December 2, an amendment to the 2026 budget aimed at simplifying and strengthening the taxation concerning vacant housing via the merger of two taxes: the tax on vacant housing (TLV) and the housing tax on vacant housing (THLV).
The first is currently applicable to so-called “tense” areas, that is to say with a severe housing shortage, while the second concerns non-strained areas and is only optional, at the discretion of mayors. “It’s the same purpose, but with two rate bases, two collection circuits and an illegible tax architecture, a source of confusion for owners”castigated socialist senator Isabelle Briquet, thus summarizing the difficulties of the current system while according to her it is necessary “to encourage housing to be put back on the market”.
The abolition of the tax on vacant housing
Another pitfall put forward by the upper house: the TLV is a tax levied by the State and therefore cannot be controlled by local elected officials. The idea, widely shared in the hemicycle, would therefore be to eliminate this TLV in favor of a generalization of the THLV, the product of which would be entrusted to the municipalities. This tax would remain optional in non-tense areas and would be obligatory in tense areas, where it may be subject to an increase.
The senators estimated that their system would lead not only to a simplification but also to a strengthening of this tax on vacant housing. The government proposed a different system but with a similar objective. The National Assembly, on the other hand, went further by also merging another tax, the housing tax on second homes (THRS).
Another compromise emerged on the question of taxation of second homes. Since January 2023, the rate of the tax on second homes (THRS) has been linked to that of the property tax, preventing municipalities from specifically taxing rarely occupied accommodation without increasing the tax burden on all owners. The National Assembly called for a total disconnection of these two rates, requested by many local elected officials, in Paris in particular.
But the Senate did not want to go that far, adopting a measure with the support of the government to relax the linking of the THRS rate “when it is lower than the departmental average”. These measures are not yet final because the budget can be modified in Parliament until the second half of December at the earliest.
