New declaration required for property owners

I think that changed in recent years :wink:

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Possibly - I put my TdH and TF on direct debit and forgot about that side of thing apart from a glance at the bills when they arrive.

From this evening’s Connexion

Millions of homeowners in France now have another declaration form to fill in this year linked to reforms to the French residency tax, taxe d’habitation.

Over recent years taxe d’habitation has been removed for main homes. It is still due, however, in full for second homes and other properties you have available for you to live in.

Those who do still have to pay the taxe d’habitation will be billed according to the property that they owned, rented, or occupied on January 1 of the year in question.

Read more: Who still has to pay the taxe d’habitation in France in 2022?

The similar taxe sur les logements vacants, levied on empty, unused properties, also still applies.

To help determine who still needs to pay these taxes, public finance office la Direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP) is now asking all homeowners to complete a new declaration.

Who has to fill in the form?

The form is required if you have a main home or a second home in France, and whether your properties are currently being lived in or not.

Even if you believe you have no taxe d’habitation to pay, you are still required to fill in the form.

Around 34 million homeowners and 73 million properties are affected, the DGFiP has said.

How do I fill in the form?

Homeowners must fill in the form on the impots.gouv.fr website, in the Mes biens immobiliers section or their personal space, to complete a dĂ©claration d’occupation for each of their properties.

On the form, you must indicate who was living in the property, or had it at their disposition, on January 1, 2023. Information already held by the tax office will have been pre-filled, so for many people it will be just a matter of ‘a few clicks’ to check it is correct, the DGFiP told The Connexion.

You only need to fill in the form once, unless any details later change.

Even non-resident second-home owners are entitled to have a personal space at the tax website. Benefits include being able to consult your local property bills online in this space.

However, for people who do not have an account on the site it will be possible to provide the information over the phone on 0809 401 401. You should have to hand in information from a previous tax statement such as your numéro fiscal (tax number), as well as an identity document such as your passport.

The DGFiP state they expect many people will complete the formality at the same time as their tax returns this year, however this is not obligatory as the two are not directly linked. The final date to complete the new declaration is June 30, 2023.

What about other types of property?

The form only applies to property that can be lived in, so properties such as a parking space or a commercial building are not included. Rental properties are included.

Current advice from ImpÎt website (just checked) is to email or phone your local tax office to obtain a numéro fiscal, eg to create your own personal tax account etc


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https://www.impots.gouv.fr/international-particulier/questions/i-am-non-resident-and-i-have-identifier-how-can-i-set-personal
I used this guide 2 years ago, but you may need to get a numero fiscal at your local tax office, I applied on line no problems, although I am now fully integrated into the French tax system , I did start as a maison secondaire.

Wouldn’t really call it a form! An extra box in our espace particulier, which I didn’t even have to fill in - just click.

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I just copied and pasted the whole article 'cos it was aimed helpp o people in a variety of situations, including those who didn’t have a French tax number.

But I take no responsibility for the literary quality or otherwise of the article!

I’m just laughing at another example of the Connexion’s over enthusiastic journalism.

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Its articles are occasionally useful, it’s also nice to read a physical English language newspaper now and then and lastly, unlike SF it’s useful for lighting the poele.

TBH these days, I get far more laughs from the Guardian’s opinion writers.

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While others think what they write is the gospel truth :rofl:

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But there is no paywall

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First I’d heard of it to be fair, so something of a surprise ! Well it should give me a chance to finally correct a flat that my ex got as part of my divorce settlement and which still appeared on the tax records as “indivision” - sometimes I’ve got to wonder who’s taking the proverbial here!

I got slightly annoyed at the idea of having to do 4 extra declarations, in addition to the one for our house, in respect of 2 garages and 2 outbuildings. The one for our house specifically includes references to all the garages etc.

I’ve emailed the local tax office to ask is it really necessary to have to file declarations for buildings already included in another declaration. I will update if I get a useful response. Unfortunately each one doesn’t just require a simple click to finalise (as otherwise frankly I’d just click) but needs enough additional information to rectify, tipping me towards the ’ do I really have to do this’ request to the Impît.

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The Impîts have already replied (that’s quick, HMRC take 6-8 months to reply). Their somewhat terse (and predictable) response is that I have to complete all the declarations that are in my espace particulier


French bureaucracy working as intended then, ‘do what we tell you and don’t question it, even if it’s obviously wrong or clearly bizarre’ :sweat_smile::joy:

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until the time comes that you ignore it and they impose the TdH you would otherwise be entitled to avoid :wink:
Perhaps that should be the default position :thinking:

It seems ,but maybe not, to be a cost cutting exercise .If I / We fill out the forms it will take less people to check and if there is an error whose fault will it be?.
Suspicious certainly trusting not any longer.

Less people to check what? My interpretation is that before TdH is phased out for all but second home owners they are perhaps wanting to get people to help tidy up records. whatever checks they did previously would still have to be done.

Maybe actually income generating exercise so easy to make sure all the rental properties are paying business tax, (CFE)?

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The requirement was the subject of a piece on France3 news this lunchtime.

Thanks for this, just used it to apply for a space (we’re 2nd home owners only so far) - link still works so I’ll see what comes back. :blush:

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