Every autumn, the same envelope — or the same notification in your online tax account — lands on the doormat of British owners in France: the avis d’imposition, the formal tax bill, for the taxe foncière (the annual land and buildings tax paid by owners) and, if your French home is not your main residence, the taxe d’habitation sur les résidences secondaires (the housing tax still due on second homes). Since Brexit, nothing about these two local taxes has changed in the statute book because you hold a British passport. You pay them exactly as a French owner does, to the commune (the municipality) where the property stands. Yet in practice British owners are over-represented among those who pay too much, pay twice, or miss the deadline to object — because they let the property to holidaymakers for part of the year, because they split their time between the United Kingdom and France, or simply because the bill, the basis of assessment and the appeal route are all written in administrative French. This guide explains, in English and with the exact legal texts, what you owe, how your bill is calculated, and how to challenge it when the figures are wrong. The autumn of 2026 is the right moment to act: the taxe foncière bills for 2026 are being collected now, the second-home taxe d’habitation bills follow within weeks, and the legal deadline to contest a 2025 bill expires on 31 December 2026.
I. What you owe on your French home: the two local property taxes after Brexit
French local taxation of home ownership rests on two separate taxes, governed by two separate sets of rules, recovered by two separate entries on your avis. Confusing them is the most common and the most expensive mistake British owners make, because each has its own liable person, its own exemptions and its own litigation. Neither depends on nationality or on Brexit: both depend on where the property stands and on the facts as they stood on 1 January of the tax year.
A. Taxe foncière: the owner’s tax, assessed on the cadastral rental value frozen on 1 January
The taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties — the tax on built property — is the owner’s tax. Article 1380 of the Code général des impôts (the General Tax Code, the statute that gathers France’s tax rules) states the principle, word for word: “La taxe foncière est établie annuellement sur les propriétés bâties sises en France à l’exception de celles qui en sont expressément exonérées par les dispositions du présent code.”
In plain English: every built property in France is liable each year unless a statute expressly exempts it. The liable person is the owner as recorded at the land registry, including the bare owner where the property is split between usufruit (a life interest or right of use) and nue-propriété (the bare ownership beneath it). If you bought your Dordogne farmhouse or your Paris flat in your own name, you are liable even if you live in London eleven months of the year, even if the house stood empty, and even if you earned no rental income from it. If you hold the property through an SCI (société civile immobilière, the family property company many British buyers use), the company itself receives the bill and passes the cost to you through the accounts.
The amount is not a percentage of the price you paid. It is a percentage of the valeur locative cadastrale (the cadastral rental value), a notional annual rent attributed to your property by the tax administration on the basis of a national scale that dates, for housing, from the 1970s, periodically revalued by statute. Each commune and each intercommunal body then votes its own rate, the taux d’imposition, and the bill is the product of the two, minus a standard 50 per cent allowance for houses. Two identical cottages on opposite sides of a municipal boundary can therefore produce very different bills, and a sudden jump in your bill from one year to the next usually comes from the voted rate, not from a reassessment of your home.
The decisive date for everything is 1 January. Article 1415 of the Code provides, word for word: “La taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties, la taxe foncière sur les propriétés non bâties et la taxe d’habitation sur les résidences secondaires sont établies pour l’année entière d’après les faits existants au 1er janvier de l’année de l’imposition.”
Sell your house in March and you still owe the whole year’s taxe foncière; the notaire (the French public officer who conveys property) normally apportions it between seller and buyer in the completion statement, but that apportionment is a private arrangement — the Treasury pursues whoever owned on 1 January. Buy in February and your first bill arrives the following autumn. Die during the year and the tax remains due from the estate. This annual, indivisible character is why British sellers who complete in spring sometimes discover, months later, a bill they assumed the buyer had absorbed.
Because the cadastral value is a notional figure, it can be wrong — and when it is wrong, the courts require the judges who hear your case to answer your argument properly. In a decision of 28 March 2022, n° 438905, the Conseil d’État (France’s supreme administrative court) quashed part of a judgment of the tribunal administratif (the first-instance administrative court) of Nîmes concerning the taxe foncière assessed on a commercial building, holding, in Conseil d’État, 28 March 2022, n° 438905, word for word: “Il ressort des énonciations du jugement attaqué que le tribunal a omis de répondre au moyen, opérant, contestant l’évaluation de la valeur locative de l’ensemble immobilier en cause en trois lots distincts eu égard aux caractéristiques physiques de cet immeuble et à son utilisation pour une unique activité de négoce de pneumatiques.” The court added, in the same decision, word for word: “Par suite, sans qu’il soit besoin d’examiner les autres moyens du pourvoi, la société Fortunio II est fondée à demander l’annulation de l’article 4 du jugement qu’elle attaque.”
The lesson for a British homeowner is practical rather than technical. If your taxe foncière rests on a misdescribed property — wrong floor area, a ruin valued as a dwelling, outbuildings counted as living space, a house reclassified after works — that is an operative plea (moyen opérant), and the court must deal with it. Gather the relevé de propriété (the property extract), your purchase deeds, dated photographs and, where the error is physical, a surveyor’s report before you write the first letter.
B. Taxe d’habitation on second homes and the surcharge your commune may have voted
The taxe d’habitation (the housing or residence tax) was abolished for main homes, but it survives — in full — for second homes, which is precisely what most British-owned properties in France are. Article 1407 of the Code now opens with this wording, word for word: “La taxe d’habitation sur les résidences secondaires est due pour tous les locaux meublés conformément à leur destination d’habitation autre qu’à titre principal, y compris lorsqu’ils sont imposables à la cotisation foncière des entreprises.”
A résidence secondaire (second home) is any furnished dwelling that is not your résidence principale (main home). The test is factual, not declaratory: the home where you and your family habitually and effectively live. A British couple whose main home is in Kent and who keeps a flat in Paris or a farmhouse in the Lot owns, in French tax law, a résidence secondaire, even if they spend four months a year there. Conversely, a British national who has genuinely settled in France, registered for tax, and lives year-round in the French house holds their résidence principale there and pays no taxe d’habitation at all — though they still pay the taxe foncière under Part A above. Where a family genuinely straddles both countries, keep the evidence of habitual residence (school enrolment, doctor, utility consumption, tax household) because the administration presumes from your French property that questions will follow.
On top of the base, your commune may have voted a surcharge. Article 1407 ter of the Code allows it in these terms, word for word: “Dans les communes mentionnées au B du I de l’article 1406 bis, le conseil municipal peut, par une délibération prise dans les conditions prévues à l’article 1639 A bis, majorer d’un pourcentage compris entre 5 % et 60 % la part lui revenant de la cotisation de taxe d’habitation sur les résidences secondaires due au titre des logements meublés.”
The conseil municipal (the elected municipal council) may therefore increase its share of your bill by anything from 5 to 60 per cent, by a formal vote (délibération) taken before the statutory deadline. The list of communes entitled to do so has grown considerably: the decree n° 2023-822 of 25 August 2023 extended the perimeter of tight housing zones, and the associations that challenged that extension lost. By a decision of 21 December 2023, n° 488601, In Conseil d’État, 21 December 2023, n° 488601, the court held, word for word: “Il résulte de ce tout ce qui précède que les requérants ne sont pas fondés à demander l’annulation du décret qu’ils attaquent.”
The challenge, including the request to send a priority question on constitutionality to the Conseil constitutionnel (the Constitutional Council), was rejected in full. For British owners the consequence is concrete: Paris applies a 60 per cent surcharge, and hundreds of coastal, mountain and city communes where British buyers cluster have followed. If your bill suddenly shows a line for majoration (the surcharge), check the rate voted by your commune before assuming an error — the surcharge is lawful wherever the délibération exists.
Three groups of owners can nevertheless obtain relief (dégrèvement, a reduction granted after assessment) from the surcharge on written claim. The statute lists them: first, people obliged for professional reasons to live somewhere other than their main home, for the dwelling near their workplace; second, people formerly housed in their main home who now live permanently in a care institution covered by article 1414 B; third, people who, for a cause beyond their control (pour une cause étrangère à leur volonté), cannot use the dwelling as their main home. The exact wording, in the same Article 1407 ter, is word for word: “Sur réclamation présentée dans le délai prévu à l’article R. * 196-2 du livre des procédures fiscales et dans les formes prévues par ce même livre, bénéficient d’un dégrèvement de la majoration : 1° Pour le logement situé à proximité du lieu où elles exercent leur activité professionnelle, les personnes contraintes de résider dans un lieu distinct de celui de leur habitation principale ; 2° Pour le logement qui constituait leur résidence principale avant qu’elles soient hébergées durablement dans un établissement ou service mentionné au premier alinéa du I de l’article 1414 B du présent code, les personnes qui bénéficient des dispositions du même article ; 3° Les personnes autres que celles mentionnées aux 1° et 2° qui, pour une cause étrangère à leur volonté, ne peuvent affecter le logement à un usage d’habitation principale.”
A British owner posted to Paris for work while the family home stays in the UK, or an elderly parent moved into residential care, should test these categories rather than pay the surcharge unexamined. The claim must be filed within the time limit examined in Part II below.
One final distinction matters enormously to British owners who let out gîtes (furnished holiday cottages) or a spare flat on a platform. Short-term letting does not remove the property from the taxe d’habitation — it confirms that you keep it at your disposal. In Conseil d’État, 23 December 2024, n° 492174, ECLI:FR:CECHS:2024:492174.20241223, the court restated the rule, word for word: “Il résulte de ces dispositions qu’est en principe redevable de la taxe d’habitation le locataire d’un local imposable au 1er janvier de l’année d’imposition. Toutefois, par dérogation à ce principe, lorsqu’un logement meublé fait l’objet de locations saisonnières ou de courte durée, le propriétaire du bien est redevable de la taxe d’habitation dès lors qu’au 1er janvier de l’année de l’imposition, il peut être regardé comme entendant en conserver la disposition ou la jouissance une partie de l’année.”
The owners in that case ran three tourist gîtes with high occupancy through online platforms and argued that constant letting proved they kept nothing for themselves. The court answered that the freedom to accept or refuse bookings through the year proves exactly the opposite — retained disposal — and that the lower court had, in so holding otherwise: “commis une erreur de droit” — committed an error of law, in the court’s own words. The judgment annulled the discharge the owners had won and reinstated the tax. If you let your French house on a seasonal basis, budget for the taxe d’habitation as an owner and do not expect the platform calendar to exempt you.
Do not confuse this tax with the taxe annuelle sur les logements vacants (the annual tax on vacant dwellings), a separate national tax aimed at homes left empty for at least a year in tight zones. Article 232 of the Code provides, word for word, that for this tax: “Pour l’application de la taxe, n’est pas considéré comme vacant un logement dont la durée d’occupation est supérieure à quatre-vingt-dix jours consécutifs au cours de la période de référence définie au II.”
A genuinely vacant property can therefore attract the vacant-dwelling tax instead of — not as well as — the second-home taxe d’habitation; a house you occupy each summer is not vacant within this definition.
II. Your bill has arrived: checking it, paying it, and challenging it before the deadline
French tax procedure rewards the owner who reads the avis the week it arrives and punishes the one who files it away until Christmas. The administration allows online claims, suspends collection in defined cases, and answers — but every favour is fenced with a time limit, and the limits for local taxes are shorter than most British owners assume.
A. How to check your avis and pay on time: the figures, the office, and the calendar
Start with the paper or online avis d’imposition itself. It states the valeur locative used, the rates voted by the commune and the intercommunal body, any majoration for second homes, and the total with the payment deadline — historically mid-October for the taxe foncière and November for the second-home taxe d’habitation, the exact date being printed on your bill. Compare the valeur locative with the previous year: an unexplained jump points to a reclassification of the premises or to works the administration has recorded. Compare the voted rates with the previous year: a jump there points to the délibération of your commune, possibly the adoption or increase of the 5 to 60 per cent surcharge described above. If you own through an SCI, check that the bill is addressed to the company and that the property description matches the company’s holdings.
British owners who do not live in France full-time should check two practical points first. Make sure the administration holds a current address: bills sent to an old address still start time running, and the majoration de 10 % (the 10 per cent late-payment surcharge) applies whether or not you actually opened the envelope. The official guidance on contesting the taxe foncière warns that a claim does not dispense you from paying, and that if the claim fails, the tax plus the 10 per cent increase for late payment falls due — see the service-public.fr notice on challenging the taxe foncière. Second, confirm which office handles your file: the contact details printed at the head of the avis are the ones to use, and your secure messaging (messagerie sécurisée) on impots.gouv.fr reaches the same service with a dated record both sides can produce later.
Payment itself can be made online, by direct debit (prélèvement), or monthly instalments (mensualisation) if you opt in early enough in the year. Owners who arrive in France mid-year sometimes assume the monthly scheme covers the current bill automatically; it does not unless the option was exercised in time, so read the avis rather than the bank statement. Keep every receipt: under article 1415 the assessment is annual and indivisible, and when buyer and seller apportion the taxe foncière in the completion accounts, the receipt proves who actually discharged the Treasury.
On the British side of the Channel, two points complete the picture. First, the United Kingdom has a double taxation convention with France, and the official gov.uk guidance on the France tax treaties confirms the convention is in force; the broader gov.uk Living in France guide treats tax and property as linked topics for British residents. French taxe foncière and taxe d’habitation are local taxes recovered by the commune, not the national income taxes the convention principally allocates, so do not assume any credit against UK tax without advice — the question belongs in your UK return preparation, not in your French claim. Second, letting income from your French gîte must be declared in France where the property stands, regardless of where you live; the taxe d’habitation analysis above and the income-tax analysis are independent, and winning or losing one does not decide the other.
B. How to challenge a wrong bill: réclamation, suspension of payment, and the administrative court
A challenge (réclamation contentieuse, the formal claim asking the administration to discharge or reduce an assessment) begins with the administration, never with the court. Article L190 of the Livre des procédures fiscales (the Book of Tax Procedures, the statute governing disputes) defines the field, word for word: “Les réclamations relatives aux impôts, contributions, droits, taxes, redevances, soultes et pénalités de toute nature, établis ou recouvrés par les agents de l’administration, relèvent de la juridiction contentieuse lorsqu’elles tendent à obtenir soit la réparation d’erreurs commises dans l’assiette ou le calcul des impositions, soit le bénéfice d’un droit résultant d’une disposition législative ou réglementaire.”
In practice you write through the secure messaging on impots.gouv.fr — selecting the property-tax claim category — or by recorded-delivery letter to the office shown on the avis. Identify the tax, the year, the property reference, the precise error (wrong occupier, wrong valeur locative, main home taxed as second home, surcharge applied where a dégrèvement category applies, exemption ignored), quantify the reduction you seek, and attach the proof: deeds, taxe d’habitation history, energy bills, residence evidence, the commune’s délibération if you contest the surcharge rate, the platform calendars and booking terms if the administration taxes a property you say you no longer hold. The official step-by-step for time limits is the service-public.fr page on claim deadlines, and the companion page on tax claims and court appeals describes the route to the judge.
The deadline is the trap. For local direct taxes, Article R*196-2 of the Book of Tax Procedures provides, word for word: “Pour être recevables, les réclamations relatives aux impôts directs locaux et aux taxes annexes doivent être présentées à l’administration des impôts au plus tard le 31 décembre de l’année suivant celle, selon le cas : a) De la mise en recouvrement du rôle, de la notification d’un avis de mise en recouvrement ou de l’émission d’un titre de perception ; b) De la réalisation de l’événement qui motive la réclamation ; ne constitue pas un tel événement une décision juridictionnelle ou un avis mentionné aux troisième et cinquième alinéas de l’article L. 190 […] e) Du versement de l’impôt contesté lorsque cet impôt n’a pas donné lieu à l’établissement d’un rôle, à la notification d’un avis de mise en recouvrement ou à l’émission d’un titre de perception.”
Concretely: a 2025 bill placed on the rôle (the collection roll) in autumn 2025 must be challenged by 31 December 2026; a 2026 bill by 31 December 2027. The service-public.fr deadline page confirms the translation into calendar terms — 31 December 2027 for a tax recovered in 2026. A claim posted on 2 January is late, and lateness is fatal to the whole case regardless of how obvious the error is. Diarise the date the week the avis arrives, and file early: the online acknowledgement proves the date, the postmark proves it for letters, and neither can be reconstructed afterwards.
Filing the claim does not by itself stop collection — but you can ask for suspension. Article L277 of the Book of Tax Procedures provides, word for word: “Le contribuable qui conteste le bien-fondé ou le montant des impositions mises à sa charge est autorisé, s’il en a expressément formulé la demande dans sa réclamation et précisé le montant ou les bases du dégrèvement auquel il estime avoir droit, à différer le paiement de la partie contestée de ces impositions et des pénalités y afférentes.”
The two conditions are cumulative and strict: an express request for deferred payment (sursis de paiement, the suspension of collection while the dispute runs) inside the claim itself, and the amount or basis of the reduction claimed. Write the sentence; do not imply it. Above a threshold fixed by decree the accountant may require guarantees, and enforcement is then frozen until a final decision. If you simply stop paying without those words, the 10 per cent increase and enforcement measures continue while your file is examined.
If the administration rejects the claim — expressly, or by silence once the examination period has run — the dispute moves to the tribunal administratif of the place where the property stands. That court re-examines the assessment in full: the valeur locative, the occupier on 1 January, the main-home characterisation, the surcharge délibération, the dégrèvement categories. This is where the two 2022 and 2024 decisions cited above do their work: the Nîmes ruling requires the court to answer a properly evidenced attack on the cadastral value, and the gîtes ruling frames the seasonal-letting argument you must be ready to meet. Bring the complete correspondence history, because the judge checks admissibility first — the 31 December deadline, the prior claim to the administration — and only then the substance. An appeal then lies to the cour administrative d’appel (the administrative court of appeal) and, on points of law, to the Conseil d’État.
Three British-specific errors deserve a final warning. First, assuming Brexit created an exemption: it did not, and a claim drafted around nationality will be rejected. Second, assuming that letting the property year-round through an agent shifts the taxe d’habitation to the tenants: the Conseil d’État holds the opposite for seasonal arrangements, as shown above. Third, contesting the wrong target: the valeur locative is challenged through the assessment claim described here, while the voted rate is a political act of the commune that the tax judge applies as it stands — verify the délibération exists and its percentage before alleging an error in arithmetic.
Conclusion
Your French property tax position as a British owner rests on four certainties. The taxe foncière falls on you as owner every year by reference to the cadastral value and the facts on 1 January, under article 1380 and article 1415 of the General Tax Code. The taxe d’habitation falls on your second home under article 1407, potentially increased by 5 to 60 per cent where your commune has voted the surcharge under article 1407 ter, subject to the three statutory reliefs. Seasonal letting keeps you liable as the owner who retains disposal, as the Conseil d’État confirmed on 23 December 2024. And any error must be challenged by réclamation no later than 31 December of the year after recovery, with an express request for suspension of payment if you want collection frozen. Read this autumn’s avis against those four points the day it arrives: check the occupier, check the value, check the rate, and file before the deadline rather than after it. Where the figures resist a straightforward reading — mixed personal use and letting, a disputed main-home characterisation, a surcharge relief that fits your situation — take advice before the 31 December clock runs out, because a late claim, however well founded, cannot be saved.
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