Property taxes: How taxpayers cut taxes by refusing to pay shock increases

“We were presented with a fitting fulfillment.” In mid-summer in 2019, taxpayers received a letter from Departmental Directorate of Public Finance (DDFIP) with surprise. A letter informs them that “amenity elements” have not been taken into account since the 1970s when calculating their housing tax. Result: The bases for calculating property taxes have been updated and some taxpayers are experiencing increases of up to 65%!

12,000 taxpayers in Isère receive a letter from the tax services. Under the auspices of UNPI (National Union of Real Estate Owners), about twenty tax families are applying to the administrative court. “Owners are tired of being cash cows,” Jacqueline, one of these taxpayers Dauphiné Libre. Asking the tax services for clarification, the owners find, for example, that they have been living in a house without electricity for 35 years! For these taxpayers, “surprisingly”,

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The tax administration did not justify the tax increase

The administrative court ruled in favor of these owners. He considered that “the tax administration cannot establish at the expense of (owner) rights more than the sum of the elements that it has disclosed only after doing, according to the general principle of rights of protection. Isère Céline Hartmann Director of the UNPI this Details of the court’s decision are given here Dauphiné Libre : “The owners were unable to assert their defense or challenge.” The tax administration did not justify the tax increase. The judge ruled in favor of the taxpayers, voiding the property tax increase.

Tax points out that the administrative court condemned the form of the procedure for updating the tax base and confirmed that the owners were notified by plain mail without acknowledgment of receipt. The increase in the amount of tax was €63 on average, the Issar tax authorities specified. The tax department explains that it has updated its bases for “tax fairness” because taxpayers have not updated their household characteristics for several years.

It is likely that the tax administration will ask taxpayers to file a corrective declaration to recalculate their property tax. The property tax mechanism is from 1970.

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Property Tax Hike: Why Amounts Are Going Up While Many Municipalities Have Left Their Rates Unchanged

The process is underway in Paris

This is not the first time that courts have struck down property tax increases. In Marseille, in April 2023, the Administrative Court annulled a property tax increase of 5.45 points voted by the city in 2022 and ruled in favor of 238 Marseille owners. A similar action is underway in Paris.