If you are a British owner who has just built a house in France, added a habitable extension or converted an agricultural building, the French taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties (property tax on built land) may not be payable in full during the first two tax years. That relief is not a Brexit privilege and it is not automatic: it depends on the nature of the work, the date on which the taxable premises were completed, local decisions and a declaration made within 90 days. A late or incomplete filing can reduce the relief, while a bill that ignores a timely declaration can be challenged. This article separates the two-year statutory exemption from optional energy-performance relief and explains the evidence a UK owner should keep. It also deals with the practical problem faced by many British residents: the planning completion document, the French tax declaration and the first tax notice use related but not identical concepts. The rules apply to an owner living in France, a British second-home owner and, subject to the ownership rules, a non-resident. They do not turn the French property tax into UK Council Tax, nor do they replace the separate legal work involved in buying a property or creating a company.

I. When does the two-year French property-tax exemption apply to a UK owner?

A. Does a new build, reconstruction or extension qualify after completion?

The starting point is the French tax on built property, known in everyday use as taxe foncière. Under Article 1380 of the French General Tax Code (the Code général des impôts, or CGI), built properties situated in France are within the scope of this tax. The relevant taxpayer is normally the current owner. Article 1400 CGI states that, subject to particular rights such as usufruct, property is assessed in the name of the current owner. British nationality, residence under the Withdrawal Agreement, a French residence permit or ownership of a French holiday home does not alter that starting point.

The relief for a residential construction is found in Article 1383 CGI. Its central rule says, in the official French text: Les constructions nouvelles, reconstructions et additions de construction à usage d’habitation sont exonérées de la taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties durant les deux années qui suivent celle de leur achèvement. In English, new constructions, reconstructions and additions used as a dwelling are exempt from the built-property tax for the two years following the year in which they are completed.

That wording covers three different situations:

• a genuinely new dwelling built on land;
• a reconstruction that produces a new taxable building or replaces a building in the circumstances recognised by the tax rules; and
• an addition de construction, meaning a physical addition to an existing building that creates taxable built premises, such as a habitable rear extension, an additional wing or a newly built floor.

It does not mean that every invoice labelled “renovation” creates a fresh two-year exemption. Repainting, replacing a kitchen, insulating a room or changing a roof without creating a new taxable component will generally be treated differently from an extension. A large renovation can still change the assessed rental value or the category of the property, but that is a question of the tax base, not automatically a new-construction exemption. A British owner should therefore describe precisely what was added, demolished, rebuilt or converted, rather than relying on the contractor’s commercial description of the project.

For an extension, the important question is whether the new part is a taxable addition and when the relevant premises reached completion for tax purposes. The tax service may ask for the planning authorisation, plans, floor areas and evidence of the state of the whole premises. If the extension is only a shell, cannot be used as a dwelling and is not functionally complete, the completion date may not yet have arrived. If it is a habitable room attached to the house, with the works sufficiently advanced for normal use, the tax service may treat it as completed even if decorative work remains.

The calendar calculation also matters. The statute refers to the two years following the year of completion, not simply to 24 months from the day on which the builder left. A dwelling treated as completed in 2026 will normally be analysed by reference to the 2027 and 2028 tax years. The exact result can depend on the part of the tax base that is new, the local deliberations and whether the filing conditions were satisfied. The year written on a déclaration attestant l’achèvement et la conformité des travaux (DAACT, the planning declaration confirming completion and compliance) is important evidence, but it is not the only possible evidence of tax completion.

French administrative case law illustrates why the completion date should be documented rather than guessed. In Cour administrative d’appel de Paris, 16 July 1991, no. 90PA00423, the court recorded the rule that owners must file within 90 days of completion to obtain the temporary relief, and stated that l’occupation partielle d’une partie habitable de ce local ne suffit pas à faire courir le délai de déclaration. The decision is old and concerned the wording then in force, but its practical lesson remains useful: partial occupation does not by itself settle whether a larger, indivisible building is complete. The case also shows the importance of proving whether the different parts could be used and assessed separately.

There is a second, more practical boundary. The official tax guidance says a construction is treated as completed when it is habitable, even if minor work such as painting or floor coverings remains. That guidance should be read with the facts of the project. “Habitable” is not a permission to postpone the declaration until every snagging item is closed. Nor is it a reason to file on the day the first room can be occupied when a single indivisible dwelling is still substantially incomplete. Keep a dated completion record, photographs, the contractor’s handover document, utility activation evidence and a short written explanation of why the premises were or were not usable on the date selected.

B. What do the commune, EPCI and energy-performance rules change?

The two-year rule is subject to a local-government qualification that is easy to miss. The commune is the municipality. An établissement public de coopération intercommunale (EPCI) is an inter-municipal public body, such as a community of municipalities or an urban community. Article 1383 allows the commune, for the share of tax allocated to it, to limit the residential exemption to 40%, 50%, 60%, 70%, 80% or 90% of the taxable base. The EPCI may, for its own share, remove the exemption. The text also contains protections and distinctions for dwellings financed through certain state-supported or regulated loans.

This means that “two-year exemption” is not always synonymous with a zero bill. A local authority may have adopted a valid deliberation that reduces the relief for its share. A notice can therefore contain a residual taxe foncière even where the construction is eligible. The owner should ask the service départemental des impôts fonciers (SDIF, the departmental property-tax office) which local deliberations apply to the municipality and the tax year. The answer should identify the commune share and, where relevant, the EPCI share rather than merely saying “the exemption is not available”.

The rule also differs according to use. The residential rule in Article 1383 applies to a home. For a new building used for purposes other than housing, the same article provides a different temporary relief, generally 40% of the taxable base for two years, with a specific exclusion for the EPCI share. A mixed-use property may require an apportionment between the residential addition and the office, workshop or commercial part. This is one reason why a British owner who works from a separate room, runs a furnished letting activity or has a professional unit should not submit a bare statement that the whole building is “a home”. The floor plans and actual use should be clear.

The tax base is another separate issue. Article 1388 CGI provides that built-property tax is established from the valeur locative cadastrale, the cadastral rental value used as the notional annual rental value for local-tax purposes, after the statutory deduction. The new extension is therefore not simply charged according to its construction cost or its market value. The declaration enables the tax office to update the cadastral description and calculate the value. A dispute about an excessive area or an incorrect room category can exist alongside a dispute about the temporary exemption. Separate the two arguments in the correspondence.

There may also be an additional local relief for a genuinely energy-efficient new home. Article 1383-0 B bis CGI allows a commune or EPCI, if it has adopted the required deliberation, to exempt qualifying new homes by 50% to 100% for five years from the year after completion. The official text provides: L’exonération s’applique pour une durée de cinq ans à compter de l’année suivant celle de l’achèvement de la construction. The owner must attach proof of the energy and environmental criteria to the Article 1406 declaration. This is not a universal national extension of the ordinary two-year relief. It depends on the local decision, the technical criteria and evidence submitted at the correct time. Where the ordinary Article 1383 conditions are met and no contrary local decision exists, the special relief is designed to apply from the third year after completion.

For a British owner, the cleanest approach is to make a tax schedule before filing:

• the date the new dwelling or addition became tax-complete;
• the two following tax years;
• the residential and non-residential components, if any;
• the commune and EPCI decisions applicable to the property; and
• any separate energy-performance relief, with the certificates that support it.

Do not include the taxe d’enlèvement des ordures ménagères (TEOM, the household-waste collection charge) in the exemption calculation. The official impots.gouv.fr guidance on a new home expressly says that the 90-day declaration conditions the total or partial property-tax relief for two years, but the TEOM remains payable. A notice showing TEOM does not, by itself, prove that the temporary taxe foncière exemption has been refused.

The UK connection is mainly practical. The British government’s Living in France guidance directs British nationals to the French tax authority for French tax questions and explains that French and UK obligations can coexist. The property-tax declaration described here is a French local-tax filing. It is not a UK Council Tax return, and the fact that a British owner pays or does not pay Council Tax in the UK does not determine the French result. If the property is rented or the construction affects UK income reporting, that is a separate cross-border tax analysis.

II. How should a British owner file the 90-day declaration and challenge a bill?

A. Which H1 or H2 form, completion date and documents prove the claim?

The obligation comes from Article 1406 CGI. The first paragraph states: Les constructions nouvelles, ainsi que les changements de consistance ou d’affectation des propriétés bâties et non bâties, sont portés par les propriétaires à la connaissance de l’administration, dans les quatre-vingt-dix jours de leur réalisation définitive et selon les modalités fixées par décret. In practical terms, a new building, an addition that changes the physical substance of the property or a change of use must be reported to the tax administration within 90 days of its definitive completion. This is a tax declaration, even though it may be made through a digital property service that also displays planning information.

The ordinary route is the owner’s secure account on impots.gouv.fr, under Biens immobiliers (Real Estate). The official instructions say that a property can display a “déclaration foncière attendue” notice, meaning that a property-tax declaration is awaited. The owner selects “Déclarer”, completes the description and submits the information. If online filing is not possible, the same guidance refers to paper form 6650-H1 for an individual house and form 6652-H2 for an apartment, sent to the SDIF for the location of the property. An extension to a house will usually be described through the declaration route corresponding to the dwelling, but the exact form and any additional information should be confirmed with the SDIF when the project is unusual or mixed-use.

The declaration is not the same document as a DAACT. The DAACT is sent to the planning authority, usually the mairie (town hall), to confirm completion and conformity with the planning authorisation. The property-tax declaration is sent to the tax administration so that the cadastral description and local-tax base can be updated. A DAACT can help prove the date and scope of the works, but a DAACT without a tax declaration does not automatically preserve the exemption. Conversely, the tax office may assess completion from the actual condition of the premises even when a planning document has not been filed or when the planning authority has not yet responded.

That distinction is illustrated by Cour d’appel de Rouen, RG no. 22/04114. The case concerned a construction project, a lost property-tax exemption and a dispute about the DAACT and the “model U” tax declaration. The published decision discusses the fact that completion can be understood differently under planning, construction and tax rules. The lesson for an owner is not that one document always wins; it is that the file must explain the project’s physical state, the date it became taxable and the person responsible for the tax declaration.

A different factual example appears in Tribunal judiciaire de Marseille, 11 June 2024, RG no. 21/00979. The judgment records a dispute in which four flats were treated as completed despite a continuing connection dispute with ENEDIS, in part because they were subject to leases. The published text states that ils devaient être regardés comme achevés malgré le litige avec la SA ENEDIS. That outcome was fact-specific and involved a professional project, but it warns against treating an unresolved utility issue as an automatic extension of the tax deadline.

For a British owner, the evidence pack should be assembled before the online form is submitted. It should normally contain:

• the planning permission or prior declaration and the approved plans;
• the DAACT, if one has been filed, together with proof of delivery to the town hall;
• the contractor’s handover certificate, final invoice and a dated description of the remaining work;
• photographs showing the state of the extension or dwelling at the chosen completion date;
• evidence that the premises were habitable, such as water, electricity, heating or other functional installations, without treating one utility document as conclusive;
• plans and surface measurements separating the existing building, the new addition and any non-residential space;
• the ownership details and the French property identifier used in the tax account; and
• where relevant, energy-performance certificates and the local deliberation relied on for the five-year relief.

The date should be stated in one sentence and supported by the documents. For example: “The extension became habitable and functionally complete on 14 September 2026; paintwork in the hallway remained, but the rooms were usable as a dwelling.” If the project is an indivisible build with several unfinished parts, explain why the date is later. If an independent part was completed and usable separately, identify that part and ask the SDIF how it should be assessed. This avoids the two common errors of filing too early with an indefensible date or waiting until every cosmetic defect is repaired.

The official impots.gouv.fr page states that the owner declares a new construction within 90 days after the end of the works, and that a house is considered completed when it is habitable even if painting or floor coverings remain. It also explains a narrow developer situation: if a developer remains the owner during the 90 days after completion, the developer files; if the developer fails to do so, the purchaser receives a special 90-day period from acquisition, but that extra period does not lengthen the exemption. This is an administrative filing point, not a guide to the purchase process.

Keep a copy of the submitted declaration, the acknowledgement or screenshot, the date and time of submission, and every message exchanged with the SDIF. A British owner living outside France should not assume that a UK correspondence address removes the need to monitor the French account. The avis de taxe foncière (property-tax notice) may arrive after the declaration has been filed and may still require a correction request.

B. What can you do after a late declaration, refusal or incorrect assessment?

Article 1406 itself addresses late filing. Its second paragraph provides: Le bénéfice des exonérations temporaires de taxe foncière sur les propriétés bâties et non bâties est subordonné à la déclaration du changement qui les motive. It then states that, when the declaration is filed out of time, the exemption applies only to the period remaining after 31 December of the following year. The precise period must be calculated from the completion year and the actual filing date. A late form is therefore not necessarily irrelevant, but it can destroy part of the relief. The safest position is to file immediately, explain the delay, attach proof of the completion date and ask the tax office to calculate the residual relief rather than simply accepting a full assessment.

Suppose a British owner completed an extension, missed the 90-day deadline and then received a bill containing the full taxable base. The response should distinguish three questions:

1. Was the extension legally a qualifying addition for residential use?
2. What was the tax completion date, and was the declaration late?
3. Which part of the exemption survives under Article 1406 after the late filing rule and local deliberation?

Answering those questions with a short chronology is more effective than sending a general complaint about Brexit or the fact that the property was empty. Include the form, proof of submission, the notice, the Article 1383 calculation, the local decision if available and a table showing the taxable area before and after the extension. If the dispute concerns an energy-performance exemption, add the certificates and identify the exact Article 1383-0 B bis condition that has been met.

If the notice is wrong, make a formal réclamation contentieuse, meaning a written tax claim asking the administration to correct or discharge the assessment. Use the secure messaging service or the channel indicated on the notice, and address the SDIF. The claim should identify the property, tax year, notice number, disputed amount, legal grounds, requested relief and supporting documents. Ask for a written decision. If the owner is resident outside France, the procedural rules can require a French address for service; obtain advice on the correct address rather than leaving the correspondence point blank.

The time limit is important. Article R*196-2 of the Book of Tax Procedures provides that, for local direct taxes and related taxes, claims must generally be filed by 31 December of the year following the relevant event, such as the year in which the tax roll was put into collection or the event giving rise to the claim occurred. The applicable version and the starting event should be checked for the particular notice. A claim that is sent only to the mairie, a contractor or a UK adviser does not substitute for a claim to the French tax administration.

The claim should also respect the formal requirements. The owner should use one claim for each municipality where required, clearly identify the tax, sign it, state the remedy sought and explain the grounds. The French administrative vocabulary can be confusing: a request for dégrèvement is a request for a tax reduction or discharge; it is not a request to cancel the planning permission. If the tax service refuses, a challenge to the tax assessment normally proceeds before the competent French administrative court after the prior tax claim and the administration’s decision or the expiry of the response period. A planning dispute, a builder-liability dispute and a local-tax dispute may follow different courts and deadlines.

Do not ignore the payment date while a claim is pending. Article 1663 CGI provides that direct taxes are generally payable 30 days after the role is put into collection. Article 1730 CGI provides for a 10% increase in the situations defined by the text when property taxes are paid late. A claim does not automatically make the bill disappear. If the amount is disputed, ask the tax office about the available suspension or payment arrangements and obtain advice before withholding payment. If payment is made to avoid enforcement, state in the claim why it is being paid while disputed and preserve the payment record.

Several recurring mistakes can be avoided:

• Confusing planning and tax completion: a DAACT is not the Article 1406 declaration.
• Using the contractor’s date without checking habitability: the tax office may use the date on which the premises were usable as a dwelling.
• Assuming every renovation is a new construction: a new taxable addition must be identified.
• Claiming a zero notice: the commune may limit its share, the EPCI may remove its share and TEOM can remain due.
• Ignoring mixed use: residential and business areas can follow different rules.
• Filing without proof: an online submission receipt and a clear chronology are valuable if the notice is issued before the file is processed.
• Waiting for a UK tax answer: French taxe foncière is administered in France, even when the owner lives in Britain or reports other income to HMRC.

Finally, compare the new article of tax work with the broader rules already applying to the property. Our French taxe foncière guide for UK owners covers the wider problems of a wrong owner name, an incorrect surface, a vacant property and the ordinary challenge to a bill. The present article is narrower: it is about securing and defending the temporary relief that follows a new build or addition. That distinction helps prevent a near-duplicate claim from obscuring the specific evidence needed for the 90-day declaration.

Conclusion

A British owner who builds or extends a French home should treat the two-year taxe foncière relief as a legal filing project, not as an automatic welcome benefit. First classify the works: new dwelling, reconstruction, residential addition, mixed-use space or ordinary renovation. Then fix and document the tax completion date. File the Article 1406 declaration within 90 days through Biens immobiliers, or use the correct H1 or H2 paper route when necessary. Check the commune and EPCI deliberations, separate TEOM from the property tax, and attach energy-performance evidence if a local five-year relief is available. If the notice is wrong or the form was late, submit a structured claim promptly, calculate the surviving period of relief and protect the payment deadline. The owner’s British nationality does not remove the French obligation, but a well-documented English-language file can make the French legal and tax analysis much clearer.

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