French Taxe D’Habitation Affecting Second & Main Homes

Taxe d’habitation is being abolished for mains residences from next year, but it will still continue to apply to 2nd/ holiday homes.

In areas of high housing pressure, since 2015 local councils have been granted the powers to impose a surtax (surtaxe d’habitation pour les résidences secondaires en zone tendue) on top of the standard charge. The extra charge ranges from 5% up to a maximum of 60%.

The zone tendues currently comprise 1,136 communes and have populations great than 50,000. The threshold for councils imposing the tax has recently been lowered and can now apply to populations centres of less than 50,000. Next year we will discover how many more councils decide to add the surtax.

Figures for 2021 show that only 20% of the original list of 1,136 councils who were authorised to impose the surtax actually did so. 73% of those imposed the maximum 60% but most of the rest were around 20%.

The aim of the tax is to reduce the number of holiday or 2nd home being rented out for tourism purposes, with the aim of increasing the supply of long-term rentals.

The surtax has so far mainly affected areas covering Paris and surroundings, Cote d’Azur, Basque Country and the border area of Switzerland.

You can find out here if your area is a zone tendue: https://www.service-public.fr/simulateur/calcul/zones-tendues