Thousands of demands for payment of the taxe d’habitation have been sent out in error.

Although since January 2023 principal residences in France have been exempt from the taxe d’habitation, this week many property owners incorrectly received a demand for payment of the tax.

The tax is now only payable on second/holiday homes (taxe d’habitation pour résidence secondaire - THRS), yet the demands have also been sent out to owners who are not liable.

Many owners who have received a notice of the demand by email from the tax authority thought it to be a fraud.

The problem has arisen due to a systems failure in the tax authority affecting those who have changed homes over the past couple of years.

As it can often take many months for the change of address to be properly registered with the tax authority, the tax authority has admitted that their records may show a taxpayer owning two properties, one of which the system would identify as a second home.

They had hoped to try and prevent this error from happening by requiring this year that all property owners submit a declaration of occupancy.

However, that process also incurred many problems, as a result of which the government extended the deadline several times. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousands of owners have still to submit their declaration, although it is not thought necessarily to be these households who have been sent the demand.

Those who believe they have received a demand in error should either send a message to the tax authority using the message system on the tax authority website or ring 0809401401 from France.