Albane Leprince 05:59, December 29, 2023

Taxing owner-occupiers more to recover €11 billion. This idea was submitted after the publication of a study by INSEE that revives the idea of taxing fictitious rents... Explanations

The property tax... And now, the tax on imputed rents? This is the idea revived by two economists in an INSEE study in which they believe that not taxing landlords on the equivalent of the rent of the property they occupy would favour the richest and the oldest too much. Also, the statistical institute estimates this tax loss for the State at eleven billion euros per year!

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A tax that existed in France... Until 1965!

The principle is simple, if renting the property you live in as a landlord were to cost you 1,000 euros per month, or 12,000 euros per year, since you are not a tenant, this sum does not represent any tax revenue for the State, and therefore a loss of income. But where did this strange idea come from? Taxing homeowners more already exists in several European countries such as Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland... and even in France, until 1965.

Thus, in their study published on 19th December, the economists Monserrat Botey and Guillaume Chapelle estimate that "non-taxation is thus the largest public expenditure towards owner-occupiers [and] mainly benefits the oldest and richest households" and even sees this non-taxation as "a tax gift"... As a result, the eleven billion euros that the two economists propose to recover would become "the most important subsidy for owner-occupiers".

A new tax, a new brake on home ownership? To meditate on.