The return of housing tax?

While the government is preparing to call on local authorities to restore the country’s finances, several elected officials have thrown a wrench into the pond by calling for the return of the housing tax on main residences. Phased out between 2018 and 2023, this tax paid by tenants and owners brought in 23.8 billion euros to the State in 2020.

“The big mistake of the five-year term was the abolition of the housing tax (…). If we have to recreate a tax, it’s this one”estimated the LR mayor of Meaux Jean-François Copé on LCIwhile judging that it would be “the worst solution”. “We should imagine another form of tax”he nuanced Tuesday on Franceinfo by evoking “a tax on residence” who would come “cancel the existence of the property tax and the old housing tax”and who “would concern everyone except the most modest”.

On the left, LFI MP David Guiraud tabled an amendment as part of the budget review in order to restore the TH on main residences for the 20% of the richest households, but this is the only amendment in this regard. meaning at the Palais Bourbon. “We sold dreams to people, we told them ‘you will pay less’, but in fact, you pay with VAT”he explained Tuesday on Franceinforefuting the idea of ​​a gain in purchasing power for the most modest, already exempt from housing tax. “VAT money must return to popular consumption and to support the French or our public services”he added.

The deputies, on the other hand, tabled several dozen amendments targeting the housing tax on second homes, which notably authorize all municipalities to increase it, a possibility currently reserved for areas only. “tense”.

On the government side, Budget Minister Laurent Saint-Martin agreed on Monday that communities had ” reason ” to question taxation. But that should not “not necessarily” according to him, go through the creation of a new tax, and “certainly not by the return of the housing tax”who is “gain in purchasing power”he said on France 2. Same story for the Minister of Partnership with the Territories Catherine Vautrin, “open to a debate on local taxation” but which refutes the idea of ​​a return of TH.

Questioned by AFP, local elected officials agree that the elimination of the housing tax was a mistake, especially since contrary to its initial intention, it also benefited the wealthiest households under the principle of fiscal equality. “Its removal was a demagogic measure. Demagoguery pays off electorally but it pays off budgetarily, and the State has compensated for the loss of 23 billion euros in tax resources with a deficit”tackle Jean-François Debat, interim PS president of Villes de France.

“The abolition of the housing tax has severed any fiscal link between many residents and their municipality, and has largely destroyed the fiscal autonomy of municipalities”agrees Antoine Homé, co-chair of the finance committee of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF), judging that the communities did not, for their part, “nothing asked”. For Claire Delpech, teacher at the CNAM, “the State has been conscientiously destroying for years the link between local development and the financing paid by local taxes”. But from there to resurrecting the TH, few elected officials take the plunge.

“It would be horrible to recreate the council tax. Towards the French, this would be a denial of public speaking”said former Budget Minister Éric Woerth (Renaissance) on Wednesday. For its part, the AMF is calling for a “progressive universal contribution” with relief for those not subject to tax. “It is not a question of reinstating the housing tax, but of thinking about a citizen contribution to the public service”explains Antoine Homé, recalling that“it is not unfair or scandalous that all citizens contribute to the preservation of local public services”.