pomdeterred

Hi
can anyone tell me if the ''taxe sur logements vacents'' has really been deemed as illegal by Bruxelles?
We have been charged money for a building with no running water or electricity. We pay the taxe fonciere as we knew all that before coming to France. But this new tax contradicts itslef in the title if the porperty is not habitable

Thanks in advance for any news

Pom

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the Forum!
Do you mean a Taxe d'Habitation bill? In our ignorance we paid this for several years for a bergerie (no running water or electricity) which we only camped in. When we discovered that the Taxe d'Hab wasn't applicable since it wasn't habitable, we contacted the Impôts who ended up reimbursing us a few years for "trop-perçu".
Otherwise I don't know about the "taxe sur logements vacants" which might be the Government's way of encouraging landlords to rent their property to alleviate the chronic housing situation. Hardly likely to be relevant to your "building", though.
If no one comes along with more info, go along to your Centre des Impôts with your Avis d'Imposition, Taxe Foncière and Acte de Propriété for the building, Taxe d'Habitation for where you actually dwell (+ Acte de Propriété and Taxe Foncière if you own it), and all personal ID that you can think of...
The problem with bills from the Impôts is that they apply a 10% fine if they aren't paid on time. You pay first and get reimbursed afterwards...

EuroTrash

As dmu says, this is 2 separate issues.

The tax on vacant property is only payable on property that the owner has had standing empty for a while, so if you've only just bought it you wouldn't be charged for the first couple of years that you owned it, and as you say it has to be inhabitable. I presume that what you have received is a normal taxe d'hab bill? Does it actually say 'taxe sur logements vacants' on the bill?

Assuming it is a normal taxe d'hab bill, the reason you've been it is simply because bills are sent out for every property by default, unless they have been flagged up as uninhabitable. If you haven't told anybody that your property is uninhabitable, they won't know.

It seems to vary from commune to commune how they deal with it but generally, if your house is uninhabitable you need to get someone from the mairie to confirm this, and once it has been agreed you will then not be charged taxe d'hab for the year in question. I presume the procedure is the same for vacant property tax, though that tax doesn't exist in my neck of the woods! Normally the place needs to be confirmed as uninhabitable as on 1 Jan of each year, because situations change and the fact that it was uninhabitable on 1 Jan 2012 does not prove that it will still be uninhabitable on 1 Jan 2013 - you might have cracked on and made it inhabitable.

This is all assuming that it has no water and electricity supply connected; if there is a supply but it is simply switched off because you're not there, that's a different matter and does not make the property uninhabitable.

Garonne

Excellent advice as usual by forum experts

Only a rep from the Mairie can establish whether the property is literally uninhabitable, ie no water supply or electricity in situ.