In a report published on January 23 on the new obligation to declare occupancy of real estate, the Court of Auditors denounces a “chaotic” first 2023 campaign. The response from the Minister of Public Accounts suggests that the 2024 campaign ended with new taxation errors.
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– The tax administration had to grant unjustly taxed taxpayers “very significant relief, amounting to more than 1.3 billion euros, equivalent to 34% of the proceeds of these taxes in 2023”, underlines the Court of Auditors .
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If you are a real estate owner, you probably still remember your perplexity in spring 2023, when you had to fill out the form for the first time. declaration of occupancy of your property. Rest assured, you were not alone in wondering about this new obligation towards the tax administration, which asked you to indicate in the tool “Manage my real estate (GMBI)”, on the impots.gouv.fr website, if you occupied your property, if you rented it or if it was vacant. “For the 24 million owners concerned, the 2023 campaign took place in very difficult conditions”castigates the Court of Auditors, in a report published this Thursday, January 23.
This “chaotic countryside was initially met with incomprehension from those subject to it, subject to a new reporting obligation accompanied by a fine in the event of a breach. The purpose of the campaign was not sufficiently explained to taxpayers”judges the Court of Auditors. The purpose of this declaration of occupation of real estate is as follows: housing tax on main residences having been abolished for all taxpayers on January 1, 2023, the tax authorities wanted to have reliable and up-to-date data to establish notices of remaining taxes, namely the housing tax on second homes and the tax on vacant housing.
Why the next declaration of real estate may be more complex for owners
An online procedure for a relatively elderly audience
To collect this data, the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) opted for a entirely dematerialized procedurein order to avoid an influx of paper forms in 2023, on the occasion of the first declaration. A “inadequate choice for an obligation which affected a population on average older and more distant from IT tools”regrets the Court of Auditors. The magistrates of rue Cambon, in Paris, insist on a choice that is all the more “detrimental” as the GMBI online application was the subject of“unavailability and malfunctions»and that the tax administration sent a reminder letter to owners just 15 days before the first declaration was due, in the summer of 2023.
Certainly, postponements of this deadline have been decided, “in an emergency”admits the Court of Auditors. But “they were not enough” to allow the tax administration to have a complete inventory of the occupation of premises in France, however “the central issue of GMBI”immediately tackles the control body. Alone 54.1 million premises were recorded at the end of the 2023 campaign, representing less than three-quarters (73.1%) of the total number of owners. “What weakened the establishment” tax notices for that same year, to the point that “more than a million taxpayers have been wrongly taxed with housing tax or tax on vacant housing”scratches the report.
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Heavy financial consequences for the State
As a result, the tax administration had to grant unjustly taxed taxpayers relief (refunds) “very significant, in an amount greater than 1.3 billion eurosequivalent to 34% of the proceeds of these taxes in 2023”underlines the Court of Auditors. Denouncing a campaign “with very serious financial consequences for the State”she warns that “all efforts must be made to ensure that a loss of this magnitude does not happen again, in a very difficult context for public finances.”
Faced with this “crisis situation”the DGFIP has taken emergency measures, such as the establishment of a special team to support certain groups, such as multi-owners, the recruitment of individual or contract workers or even the granting of a “GMBI bonus” to some of its agents at the end of 2023. measures “expensive”criticizes the Court of Auditors, citing a figure of 20 million euros, which increases the cost of developing GMBI, estimated at 37.2 million.
These households receive a tax on vacant homes even though they are occupied
Undoubtedly still tax errors in 2024
After becoming aware, “lately” according to the Court of Auditors, of GMBI’s difficulties, the tax administration implemented corrections, in simplifying the user journey. “The number and amount of reliefs (housing tax on second homes and tax on vacant housing) which will be granted for 2024 will make it possible to assess its effectiveness”she warns.
An efficiency that does not yet seem optimal: “despite all the actions implemented in 2024, the results of the second campaign (declaration of occupancy of real estate) show a reporting failure rate of owners which, although it is reduced, remains high, of the order of 12% of the premises of “small” owners, and still more than 20% of the premises of “large” owners »indicates the Minister in charge of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, in her response to the report of the Court of Auditors. However, this declarative failure, that is to say the absence or errors of declaration by the owners, “mechanically translates into taxation errors»warns the minister. Which specifies that “the assessment of the 2024 taxation and the reductions to which it will have given rise will be carried out at the end of the litigation campaign, currently in progress.”
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