I only mentioned 2nd home owners, France doesn’t distinguish 2nd home ownership and nationality. At least I don’t think so.
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Absolutely
I had owned my UK flat for 18 years and paid a total of €300 CGT un France .Had I been a UK resident it would have been £23, 000. I think something changed in 2016 which effectively reduced the amount paid as a French resident. I guess hang on to the property for longer , if you can, and after 30 years you pay 0.
You just can’t avoid it, i was paying 150% council tax on my UK property because it was empty and I was only there 3 weeks per year.
Venezuela
Quite, however it doesn’t mean one has to like it.
This is, indeed a problem in come communities - the recently mentioned Île de Ré for example where a 1 bed single story property, probably in need of work will set you back north of 250k€ and many, many properties are north of 1M€.
But I don’t own a pad on the Île de Ré - I own a normal house in an unassuming Morbihan village and I’m not aware that there’s a shortage for the locals to buy.
I’m not.
However if TF just goes up to be the equivalent of TF+TdH (though I’m not sure that looks like it is happening) and then 2nd home owners get to pay TdH on top then I do start to think we’re being singled out somewhat.
Especially as I have no political voice here - even if I move permanently thanks to Brexit.
Not arguing about that and, yes, if that means I pay the same as everyone else for my 5 weeks use a year that actually seems fair to me.
But, on that score, 2nd home owners are contributing the same as everyone else and have as much right to use the amenities as everyone else without paying a premium.
OK, there at least I agree and it is one reason why too many weekenders are a problem - I’d visit more, and the plan is to make a move permanently after retirement if possible but for the moment I can only be here about 10% of the time.
That said we lost the butcher and baker in the village some years before we bought and it wasn’t due to 2nd home ownership - the problem, like everywhere else, is that people have moved their shopping away from the local shop into the closest supermarket, even in rural France. No amount of charging 2nd home owners more will fix that.
True and they are about the largest group in France (closely followed by the Danes I believe).
Some communities did this - is there any evidence that it solved the underlying problem caused by the fact that if you live somewhere “desirable” prices will tend to get pushed beyond the ability of locals to buy as outsiders want their little bit of paradise.
As the Eagles said:
Taxe d’Habitation which all second home owners and SOME principal residents pay is levied against your yearly income so if you do not file tax returns in France as a resident, then you are charged an amount decided by the local Impôts possibly taking into account the rentable value of your property and the value.
Not understanding that at all Shiba. Taxe d’hab was completely removed from all principal residences last year.
And it only relates to your annual income if you are a french resident with an income too low to pay income tax. You then can get exonerations from taxe d’hab on your second home.
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I didn’t know that. Do you still pay any social charges or other taxes on the gain though ?
I think they kept it for very high earners who can afford to pay it. We only ever paid it when the house was a holiday home for a couple of years but once the business was registered it was exonerated against the company accounts. I was under the impression that holiday homes were not exempt because in the eyes of the fisc, if you can afford to keep a second home going then you must pay for the pleasure, it may have changed but after 32 years I find things change so often here.
Especially that the burden is falling on second home owners… who by definition are not there most of the time to actually use community services.
Personally taxe d’hab felt fairer.
The kept it until ‘22, and finally removed it altogether last year.
The sale of your main residence in France is exempt from prélèvements sociaux, as well as impôt sur le revenu.
The French tax treatment on the sale of a main residence strikes me as particularly generous, especially for individuals who initially bought a property as a maison secondaire and then moved in permanently, (ie genuinely living there long term/converting it to a main residence). The UK CGT treatment in similar circumstances would not usually be so generous…
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Actually, it is. If you sell you’re main residence, even with a big profit, nothing to pay. I sold in the UK before moving to France in 2018 and got nearly 4 times what I paid, admittedly 20 years previously and didn’t have to pay any CGT. Of course if I’d moved to France, bought a property there and then sold the house in the UK, it would have been a different matter.
TF of under 700€ - I am dreaming of that! I wont say what mine is, but I have a typical village house in the next village to where I live. Not liveable in its current condition with about 75m2 and a cave and roof terrace, but classed in the lowest class condition and the TF is 840€! Just plain crazy. The place needs gutting and they somehow make that assessment. 
Maybe it’s all the sun down here gone to some folks heads
Yes, ours last year was well over €700, but we do have a modern largeish house with land. It’s still about 60% of what we were paying in the UK for a house 2/3 the size and about 10m2 of land, basically a paved bit out back you could put a table and chairs and a few pot plants on.
Well, I just can’t resist, as it still shocks me! Mine is not too far off double that and it’s certainly not.a castle! I have a couple of outbuildings and 1Ha, but the land tax portion is very very minor. I have a pool which isn’t used as it’s empty, so really can’t understand it, and seeing the 700€ figure quoted just flaws me actually.
Yes, land tax is not onerous at all, in fact cheap as chips. It’s probably the outbuildings and pool that do the damage.
Well that’s my conclusion, but a bit irked as only really use one outbuilding, the garage. Need to give it some more thought as to how I tackle this as ideally don’t want to have to keep paying for the two facilities I don’t use!
Thanks to Brexit related uncertainties, when we moved to France f/t, it took two years to sell the UK house and during the second year that it was empty, I was charged 200% Council Tax.