Every autumn, thousands of British owners of French holiday homes open an envelope or log into their impots.gouv.fr personal account and discover a tax bill they thought had disappeared. Since 1 January 2023, the taxe d’habitation (the French local residence tax) has been abolished on main homes for every taxpayer, yet it remains fully due on second homes. For a British owner who lives in London, Manchester or Edinburgh and keeps a flat in Paris, a cottage in the Dordogne or a seaside apartment on the C\u00f4te d’Azur, the French property therefore still generates a yearly bill, calculated on the situation as it stands on 1 January. Worse, in a growing number of communes where the housing market is under strain, the municipal council can add a surcharge of between 5% and 60% to the municipal share of that bill, a mechanism known as the majoration (the statutory surcharge on second-home residence tax). Since the decree of 25 August 2023 extended the list of communes entitled to vote this surcharge, bills have risen sharply, and British owners, who since Brexit hold the status of third-country nationals with no vote in municipal elections, are among the first to feel the increase. This guide explains, in plain English and with the exact legal texts, why you are liable, how your bill is built from the valeur locative cadastrale (the cadastral rental value assessed by the tax administration), which communes can apply the surcharge, who can escape it, and, above all, how to challenge an excessive or mistaken bill before the 31 December deadline and, if needed, before the administrative court.<\/p>\n
The starting point is simple and often misunderstood. Under Article 1407 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts (the French general tax code)<\/a>, “La taxe d’habitation sur les r\u00e9sidences secondaires est due pour tous les locaux meubl\u00e9s conform\u00e9ment \u00e0 leur destination d’habitation autre qu’\u00e0 titre principal”, which means that residence tax on second homes is due on every furnished premises used as a dwelling for a purpose other than as a main home. If you own a furnished flat or house in France that is not your main home, you fall squarely within this definition, whether you live in the United Kingdom, elsewhere in the world or in France itself. Brexit changed nothing here: liability for taxe d’habitation depends on the occupation of a dwelling, not on nationality or on European Union citizenship, so a British passport gives no exemption.<\/p>\n The person liable is identified by Article 1408 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>, which provides that “La taxe est \u00e9tablie au nom des personnes qui ont, \u00e0 quelque titre que ce soit, la disposition ou la jouissance des locaux imposables”, meaning the tax is assessed in the name of whoever has the use or enjoyment of the taxable premises, on whatever legal basis. As a British owner who keeps the keys, sleeps in the property during holidays and leaves your furniture there all year round, you have the disposition of the premises even when you are back in the United Kingdom for ten months of the year. The fact that the property stands empty most of the time does not remove liability, because emptiness is not the test for taxe d’habitation; furnishing and availability for residential use are the test. Only premises put to exclusively professional use escape the tax, and a holiday home plainly does not qualify.<\/p>\n Timing matters as much as occupation. The tax is assessed for the whole year by reference to the facts existing on 1 January of the year of taxation. If you owned and furnished the property on 1 January 2026, you owe the full 2026 bill even if you sell the house in March 2026; conversely, if you complete your purchase on 5 January 2026, the seller remains liable for the whole of 2026 and you will first be billed for 2027. British buyers who complete in early January sometimes assume the notaire (the French public officer who conveys property) will apportion the bill between seller and buyer, as is common with the taxe fonci\u00e8re (the French property ownership tax) through a prorata clause in the sale deed. That apportionment is purely contractual and concerns only the private relationship between seller and buyer; towards the tax administration, the person who held the property on 1 January bears the entire charge. Our separate guide on the taxe fonci\u00e8re bill for British owners<\/a> explains the parallel mechanism for the ownership tax, which obeys different rules and should not be confused with the residence tax discussed here.<\/p>\n The courts apply these principles strictly. In a decision of 10 May 2019, the Conseil d’\u00c9tat (the French supreme administrative court) recalled the governing texts in these terms: “Pour tous les locaux meubl\u00e9s affect\u00e9s \u00e0 l’habitation”, adding that “cette taxe est \u00e9tablie pour l’ann\u00e9e enti\u00e8re d’apr\u00e8s les faits existants au 1er janvier de l’ann\u00e9e d’imposition.” The court drew the practical consequence that “un immeuble doit \u00eatre assujetti \u00e0 la taxe d’habitation, si, d’une part, il contient des meubles affect\u00e9s \u00e0 l’habitation au 1er janvier de l’ann\u00e9e d’imposition et si, d’autre part, cet ameublement permet un tel usage”, meaning a building must be subjected to the tax where it contains furniture intended for residential use on 1 January and where that furniture genuinely permits such use. The judges added that the assessment of furnishing, which may be basic or summary, must consider the premises as a whole. In that case the taxpayer argued that parts of her house were unfurnished, and the court upheld the tax, holding that the flat “constituait au 1er janvier 2015 un local meubl\u00e9 affect\u00e9 \u00e0 l’habitation, au sens de l’article 1407 du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts”, so that its owner was “redevable de la taxe d’habitation au titre de l’ann\u00e9e 2015” (Conseil d’\u00c9tat, 3rd chamber, 10 May 2019, No 411898<\/a>). For a British owner, the lesson is direct: stripping a few rooms of furniture before New Year will not defeat the charge where the dwelling as a whole remains habitable, and a ruin or a building site with no residential furniture at all is a very different case from a comfortably kept holiday home.<\/p>\n A related declaration now trips up many British owners. Since the abolition of the tax on main homes, every owner must declare the occupancy status of each of their properties through the “G\u00e9rer mes biens immobiliers” (manage my property) section of impots.gouv.fr, indicating whether each dwelling is a main home, a second home, rented out or vacant. A British non-resident who never completed this declaration, often because the impots.gouv.fr account was created by the notaire at the time of purchase and never activated, may find the administration treating the property on the basis of incomplete information and issuing an inaccurate bill. Failing to declare does not create the tax, which flows from the statute itself, but it deprives you of the chance to correct the record early and it can delay any later claim. If you bought years ago and never logged in, activate your account now and check the occupancy label attached to your French address before the autumn billing campaign.<\/p>\n Once liability is established, the amount follows a mechanical formula set by Article 1409 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>: “La taxe d’habitation sur les r\u00e9sidences secondaires est calcul\u00e9e d’apr\u00e8s la valeur locative des habitations et de leurs d\u00e9pendances, telles que garages, jardins d’agr\u00e9ment, parcs et terrains de jeux.” In other words, the tax is computed on the valeur locative (the assessed rental value) of the dwelling and its outbuildings, such as garages, ornamental gardens, parks and playgrounds, with that value determined under the cadastral assessment rules. The valeur locative cadastrale is a notional annual rent attributed by the administration to your property by comparison with reference premises in the same commune, revalued each year by statute in line with consumer prices. It is not the rent you could actually charge on Airbnb, and British owners are often surprised that a modest village house can carry a valeur locative close to that of a larger town flat, simply because the communal reference scales differ.<\/p>\n The rates applied to that base are voted locally, which explains why two neighbouring communes can produce very different bills for similar houses. The taxe d’habitation comprises a communal share and, where applicable, intercommunal and special-equipment shares, each taxed at the rate voted by the relevant council, plus the frais de gestion (the state collection fee added to local taxes). The method is confirmed by the official Economy Ministry guide to second-home residence tax<\/a>, which explains that the tax is assessed for the whole year on furnished dwellings and outbuildings by reference to your situation on 1 January, that it is computed from the cadastral rental value of the dwelling and its outbuildings by applying locally voted rates, and that the cadastral rental value is revalued every year, notably in line with the consumer price index. In practice, your avis d’imposition (the tax assessment notice) shows the valeur locative, each rate and each resulting share line by line, and the first control any owner should perform is to compare those figures with the previous year: an unexplained jump in the base may signal a cadastral revision, while a jump in one share usually reflects a voted rate rise or the new surcharge discussed in Part II.<\/p>\n Three calculation traps deserve attention from British readers. First, d\u00e9pendances (outbuildings and grounds) are included: a garage, a garden shed fitted out as a guest room or extensive grounds increase the base, and a British owner who extends a g\u00eete (a furnished holiday cottage) without updating the property description may later face both a higher bill and a request for back tax. Second, the taxe d’habitation is distinct from the taxe fonci\u00e8re, which is also built on a valeur locative but with a 50% allowance and different liable persons; paying one does not extinguish the other, and the France-United Kingdom double tax treaty of 19 June 2008, which covers income tax and capital gains, gives no credit against either French local tax, because local residence and ownership taxes fall outside the treaty. You therefore cannot set your British council tax against the French bill, nor can you claim treaty relief in the United Kingdom for taxe d’habitation paid in France. Third, since Brexit you pay as a non-resident with no access to the monthly pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement (direct debit) smoothing that many French residents use, so the bill arrives as a lump sum payable by mid-December, and late payment triggers the standard 10% majoration de retard (late-payment penalty) plus interest. Diary management is part of tax management: note the payment deadline printed on the avis, which for online payment generally falls in mid-December, and keep proof of payment for any later dispute.<\/p>\n Before turning to the surcharge, run a short self-audit of your latest avis. Check the address and the occupant line: a property still labelled as your habitation principale (main home) when you actually live in the United Kingdom means the file is wrong and a second-home bill may follow with back years. Check the nombre de personnes \u00e0 charge (dependants) box: family-related reductions that applied when the dwelling was a main home do not carry over to a second home, so their disappearance is normal, not an error. Check the exon\u00e9ration lines: second homes enjoy almost no national exemptions, which surprises owners who remember the old income-linked reliefs, but those reliefs attached to main homes only. If every line looks coherent yet the total has leapt by 30% or more, the likely culprit is the municipal surcharge, and that is where the next part takes you.<\/p>\n The surcharge is the reason many British owners saw their 2024 and 2025 bills climb far beyond inflation. Article 1407 ter of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a> authorises it in these terms: “Dans les communes mentionn\u00e9es au B du I de l’article 1406 bis, le conseil municipal peut, par une d\u00e9lib\u00e9ration prise dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues \u00e0 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 r\u00e9sidences secondaires due au titre des logements meubl\u00e9s.” In plain English, in designated communes the municipal council may, by a formal vote taken under statutory conditions, increase by between 5% and 60% the municipal share of the second-home residence tax due on furnished dwellings. The statute adds that “Le produit de la majoration mentionn\u00e9e au premier alin\u00e9a du pr\u00e9sent I est vers\u00e9 \u00e0 la commune l’ayant institu\u00e9e”, so the yield goes to the commune that voted it, which explains the political incentive: in tourist towns and strained housing areas, taxing second-home owners, who are often British, Dutch or Parisian and cannot vote locally, raises revenue without alienating the local electorate.<\/p>\n Which communes qualify has widened dramatically. The mechanism is tied to the geography of the taxe annuelle sur les logements vacants (the annual tax on vacant dwellings), and Article 1406 bis of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a> defines the eligible zones as communes showing a marked imbalance between housing supply and demand causing serious difficulty in access to housing across the existing stock. The decree of 25 August 2023, which rewrote the list of such communes, pulled hundreds of additional towns, coastal resorts and mountain stations into the scheme, from parts of the Basque coast and Brittany to Alpine villages where British owners are numerous. The mountain residents’ associations challenged that extension before the Conseil d’\u00c9tat, asking it to annul “le d\u00e9cret n\u00b0 2023-822 du 25 ao\u00fbt 2023 modifiant le d\u00e9cret n\u00b0 2013-392 du 10 mai 2013 relatif au champ d’application de la taxe annuelle sur les logements vacants”, but the court ruled that “La requ\u00eate de la F\u00e9d\u00e9ration des associations de r\u00e9sidents des stations de montagne et autres est rejet\u00e9e” (Conseil d’\u00c9tat, 8th and 3rd chambers combined, 21 December 2023, No 488601<\/a>). The extension therefore stands, and a commune that appears on the decree list may lawfully vote the surcharge up to 60%. British owners should check the official simulator hosted on service-public.gouv.fr, which tells you whether your commune falls within the vacant-dwelling tax zone, and then ask the mairie (the town hall) for the deliberation fixing the local percentage: Paris votes the maximum, many coastal communes vote between 30% and 60%, and some eligible communes have chosen not to apply any surcharge at all.<\/p>\n Three groups can obtain relief from the surcharge by formal claim, and British owners occasionally fall into the first. The statute, Article 1407 ter of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>, provides that “Sur r\u00e9clamation pr\u00e9sent\u00e9e dans le d\u00e9lai pr\u00e9vu \u00e0 l’article R. * 196-2 du livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales et dans les formes pr\u00e9vues par ce m\u00eame livre, b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient d’un d\u00e9gr\u00e8vement de la majoration”, meaning that on a claim lodged within the time limit set by Article R*196-2 of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales (the French tax procedure code) and in the forms it prescribes, a discharge of the surcharge is granted to three categories. The same article describes the first as “les personnes contraintes de r\u00e9sider dans un lieu distinct de celui de leur habitation principale” for a dwelling near their workplace, that is, people forced by their work to live somewhere other than their main home; the second covers people who kept the dwelling that was their main home before moving permanently into a care home covered by Article 1414 B of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>, which grants an exemption where owners “b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient d’une exon\u00e9ration de la taxe d’habitation sur les r\u00e9sidences secondaires aff\u00e9rente \u00e0 cette habitation” after entering long-term care; and the same Article 1407 ter<\/a> describes the third as “Les personnes autres que celles mentionn\u00e9es aux 1\u00b0 et 2\u00b0 qui, pour une cause \u00e9trang\u00e8re \u00e0 leur volont\u00e9, ne peuvent affecter le logement \u00e0 un usage d’habitation principale”, namely anyone who, for a reason beyond their control, cannot use the dwelling as a main home. A British executive posted to Paris by a London employer who keeps a family house in the provinces that she cannot occupy as a main home may fit the first case; a British owner whose French house became uninhabitable after a flood or whose sale collapsed at the last minute through no fault of their own may argue the third. Note carefully that mere distance from the United Kingdom, the 90-day Schengen limit on short stays or a preference for keeping the property as a holiday home do not constitute a cause beyond your control: the administration and the courts read this exception narrowly, and you must evidence the external obstacle with documents such as an employer’s posting letter, an insurer’s uninhabitability report or a failed-sale file.<\/p>\n Two further points complete the picture. First, the surcharge is capped by law: the combined communal rate after surcharge cannot exceed the statutory ceiling, so an absurd multiplication is challengeable on that ground alone, and your avis shows the rate applied, allowing verification. Second, since Brexit, British owners sometimes ask whether taxing non-resident second-home owners more heavily discriminates against them as foreigners. The answer is generally no: the surcharge applies identically to French nationals who own second homes in the same commune, whether they live in Paris, Lyon or abroad, so there is no difference of treatment based on nationality, and the abolition of the main-home tax applied to everyone equally. Equality arguments succeed only where the commune’s deliberation itself is unlawful, for instance where it was adopted after the statutory deadline, where it sets a percentage outside the 5% to 60% range, or where the commune was not on the eligible list at all. Those are precisely the defects a careful challenge can exploit.<\/p>\n French tax disputes follow a mandatory two-stage path, and missing the first step forfeits the second. Article R*190-1 of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales<\/a> lays down the rule: “Le contribuable qui d\u00e9sire contester tout ou partie d’un imp\u00f4t qui le concerne doit d’abord adresser une r\u00e9clamation au service territorial, selon le cas, de la direction g\u00e9n\u00e9rale des finances publiques”, which means any taxpayer wishing to dispute all or part of a tax concerning them must first send a claim to the local office of the tax administration for the place of taxation. For taxe d’habitation, that is the service des imp\u00f4ts des particuliers (the local personal tax office) of the commune where the property stands, not the office near your British address and not HM Revenue and Customs, which has no jurisdiction over French local tax. The claim can be filed online from your impots.gouv.fr secure messaging account, which creates a dated receipt, or by recorded delivery letter with acknowledgment of receipt, and it must identify the tax, the year, the property address, the amount disputed and the grounds, attaching the avis, proof of the facts relied on and, for surcharge relief, the documents proving professional constraint, care-home entry or external obstacle.<\/p>\n The deadline is strict and generous at the same time. Article R*196-2 of the Livre des proc\u00e9dures fiscales<\/a> provides that “Pour \u00eatre recevables, les r\u00e9clamations relatives aux imp\u00f4ts directs locaux et aux taxes annexes doivent \u00eatre pr\u00e9sent\u00e9es \u00e0 l’administration des imp\u00f4ts au plus tard le 31 d\u00e9cembre de l’ann\u00e9e suivant celle, selon le cas : a) De la mise en recouvrement du r\u00f4le”, meaning claims concerning local direct taxes must reach the administration no later than 31 December of the year following the year the tax roll was issued. For a bill issued in autumn 2026, you have until 31 December 2027 to claim, which leaves time to gather evidence from the United Kingdom, obtain translations and seek advice. But do not confuse this comfort with safety: paying the bill first does not extend the deadline, and letting it pass extinguishes the claim even where the bill was plainly wrong. British owners who discover the problem while sorting papers at Christmas should treat the days between Christmas and New Year as a hard legal boundary, not as an administrative guideline. File before 31 December, keep the receipt, and only then consider whether to pay under reservation or to request a sursis de paiement (a formal stay of payment pending the outcome), which must be requested expressly and which, if refused, can itself be taken to the judge.<\/p>\n If the administration rejects your claim expressly or stays silent for six months, which counts as an implied rejection, the second stage opens before the tribunal administratif (the French administrative court) of the place of taxation. Article R421-1 of the Code de justice administrative (the French administrative justice code)<\/a> sets the clock: “La juridiction ne peut \u00eatre saisie que par voie de recours form\u00e9 contre une d\u00e9cision, et ce, dans les deux mois \u00e0 partir de la notification ou de la publication de la d\u00e9cision attaqu\u00e9e”, so the court can only be seised by an application directed against a decision, within two months of notification of the decision challenged. The application must be lodged through the T\u00e9l\u00e9recours citoyens platform or by post, must attach the rejection decision, the original claim and all exhibits, and must state precise legal grounds rather than general complaints about fairness. Typical winning grounds in second-home cases include: the dwelling was not furnished for residential use on 1 January, proved by dated photographs, inventory of works and utility consumption records; the commune’s surcharge deliberation is unlawful, proved by obtaining the deliberation from the mairie and checking its date, rate and legal basis; the valeur locative is excessive by comparison with comparable local premises, proved by the cadastral revision file; or the surcharge relief was wrongly refused despite documented professional constraint or external obstacle. General arguments about Brexit, about already paying council tax in the United Kingdom or about the French tax burden being heavier than the British one carry no legal weight and should never form the backbone of a case.<\/p>\n Practical evidence wins these files, so build yours like a litigator from day one. Keep your 1 January proofs every year: electricity and water consumption statements showing near-zero winter usage support a vacancy narrative but cut against a furnishing narrative, so use them consistently with your chosen ground. Keep the compromis de vente (the preliminary sale agreement) and the acte authentique (the final notarised deed) to fix ownership dates, keep the \u00e9tat des lieux (the check-in inventory) for lets, and keep every exchange with the mairie about the surcharge rate. If you let the property furnished for part of the year, keep the letting accounts, because a dwelling let furnished year-round may shift the analysis towards rental taxation and, in some configurations, towards the cotisation fonci\u00e8re des entreprises (the French business rates) rather than Lar residence tax, a reclassification that requires its own advice. For the surcharge relief, assemble the employment contract and posting letter, the care-home admission certificate or the insurer’s report within weeks of the event, while witnesses and documents are fresh; a claim filed eleven months later with no contemporaneous paper trail invites rejection. Finally, remember that the United Kingdom side offers no parallel remedy: the double tax treaty provides no mutual agreement procedure for local taxes, gov.uk’s Living in France guide<\/a> confirms that owners must deal with French property taxes under French rules, and a British court cannot quash a French avis. The only effective forum is the French one, through the r\u00e9clamation (the preliminary administrative claim) and then the tribunal administratif, with appeal to the cour administrative d’appel (the administrative court of appeal) and, on points of law, to the Conseil d’\u00c9tat.<\/p>\n For British owners, the French second home now carries a residence-tax regime that is narrower than before 2023 but sharper where it still bites. The abolition of the tax on main homes changed nothing for your holiday house: as long as it stands furnished and available for residential use on 1 January, the bill is due in full for the year, and the valeur locative multiplied by locally voted rates sets its amount. The municipal surcharge of 5% to 60% is where recent pain concentrates, and its legality turns on checkable facts: is your commune on the eligible list confirmed by the Conseil d’\u00c9tat on 21 December 2023, did its council vote a lawful rate in time, and do you fall into one of the three relief cases. Where any link in that chain breaks, the r\u00e9clamation before 31 December of the following year, then the tribunal administratif within two months of rejection, gives you a real path to discharge or reduction. Do not let Brexit fatalism or distance decide the outcome: the administration processes online claims from abroad every day, the limitation periods are the same for non-residents as for French nationals, and a documented file filed in time beats a heartfelt complaint filed late. Review this autumn’s avis line by line, verify the surcharge deliberation at the mairie, and if the figures do not withstand scrutiny, claim early, evidence heavily and escalate without missing a deadline.<\/p>\n A telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer from the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via the contact page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" British owner of a French holiday home? Why taxe d’habitation is still due after Brexit, how the 5%-60% municipal surcharge works, and how to challenge your bill before 31 December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":4186,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80312,80314],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2123895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-british-desk","category-decryptage"],"yoast_head":"\nB. How your taxe d’habitation bill is calculated from the valeur locative and the local rates<\/h3>\n
II. How to deal with the 5% to 60% surcharge on second homes and challenge your bill step by step<\/h2>\n
A. Which communes charge the surcharge on your second home and who can escape it<\/h3>\n
B. How to challenge your bill before 31 December and take the case to court if the administration says no<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n