The news hit the headlines as soon as it was announced by the Ministry of the Economy. Bercy noticed that some 7.4 million taxpayer owners were paying a lower property tax compared to the comfort characteristics of their property. Clearly, these accommodations were associated with an incorrectly completed form and through cross-checking the French tax administration had identified the error. So last week the general information was disclosed, knowing that the households concerned will receive next August the notice of revaluation of their TFPB (property tax on built properties) for payment in September 2026. On average, each taxpayer will pay 63 euros for a total of 466 million euros.
Faced with the outcry raised by this announcement, the Minister of Public Accounts responded in several ways. She first recalled that it was a technical correction, for which she bore no responsibility and was a matter of fairness to the tax of all French people. She also said that people to whom this readjustment would be applied unduly, their accommodation not having the six elements of comfort in question (running water, electricity, central heating or air conditioning, toilet, sink, shower), could of course lodge a complaint and that relief would be granted to them. Finally, because the subject has entered the field of politics at the highest level, with public interventions by key figures in Parliament, the government has not ruled out a more in-depth study of the matter and its consequences.
“In commerce, calculation errors benefit the customer, not in matters of public finances”
It is at the worst time, when the domestic finances of the French are being tested to the highest point, when their concern has never been so strong about maintaining peace in their own country, when institutional instability is at its height, that we are catching up with almost one taxpayer in six, guilty of nothing. In commerce, calculation errors benefit the customer, not in matters of public finances. No scruples on the part of the State, which has the courage to hide behind its administration…
To use the technical argument, you do not have to know the history of this file. The cadastral values assigned to each of the 36 million housing units in France were calculated in 1970, and we live on these bases, never reviewed. No problem for homes acquired new since this date: we know in detail with confidence what comfort they are equipped with and what their surface area is, another fundamental fact. For old homes, which have undergone renovation and equipment work over the years, often considerable over more than half a century, the information from Bercy is more or less well corrected, according to the declarations of the owners or even the companies that carried out the work. In 1990, the government launched a vast plan to revise the bases: measuring the economic consequences for millions of taxpayers, at the time, not only owners but also all residents paying housing tax, sitting on the same bases, Edith Cresson renounced having the revised cadastral values included in the rolls (the tax bills).
“Do we have to know little about the condition of average French people to estimate that 63 euros are nothing”
After her, no Prime Minister will have the audacity to take action, skillfully preferring to make it a subject of debate in the National Assembly and the Senate, buried after a few months. This government and its leader did not have the same prudence. We will be careful not to say like these decision-makers that the bill is painless: do we have to know little about the condition of average French people, even if they are owners, to estimate that 63 euros is nothing! In addition, it has been established that certain territories would contribute more than others to this increase, including Corsica for example. We risk realizing that the taxpayers targeted have low incomes and that the addition is painful for them, on top of so many other increases in the cost of living. We will also recall that this revaluation by the State is not the only one possible: local authorities, municipalities in the lead, beneficiaries of this property tax, can vote for rate increases, which will apply to the revised bases. Double punishment in this case, even if the pre-electoral period protects somewhat in 2026 from this drift.
However, the error of the executive, decidedly far from the French, lies elsewhere than in the financial ordeal they are undergoing. It is in the political incoherence which is placed before their eyes. While the budgetary debate finally deals with the so imperfect condition of owners, particularly landlords who house tenants, that a fair tax status is being built in view of the initial finance law for 2026, the government is sending the opposite message.
“The government has clearly crossed the threshold of acceptability”
Ultimately, owners are justified in wondering whether the State values them or is constantly prepared to tax them more and penalize them. Other evidence then comes to mind, which we had somewhat underestimated. Thus, while the holding period for exemption from taxation of capital gains on sale is reduced from 30 years to 22 years, excluding social contributions (CSG and CRDS), said levies are increased from 17.2% to 18.6%. Of course, all of this can be swept away by the Senate and disappear from the final copy, but we are far from this result and what the State agrees to on the one hand, such as the abandonment of the pension reform, must be partly compensated by tax revenues from other sources.
Inconsistency is not accepted. It is less than the increase in invoices. We must reread the late Maurice Allais, who was the second French Nobel Prize winner in economics in 1988. He explains how the acceptability of taxes is essential. The government has clearly crossed the threshold of acceptability. This error will not be forgiven by the owners. Unfortunately, they will sanction it by sanctioning France: tired of property, they will not do it again willingly and could even prefer to get rid of their heritage. Cynics will object that others will acquire their property and replace them. Is it so safe? In any case, they risk losing interest in their real estate assets, which will gradually become sterilized by vacancy and degeneration, which we can already see in the heart of our towns and villages. Not to mention other ways, even more serious for democracy, of expressing their exasperation. To be meditated on by Sébastien Lecornu, Amélie de Montchalin and Vincent Jeanbrun, the last having undoubtedly been a victim like the owners of this oukase from above.
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