Disclaimer: This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal, tax, or financial advice. Always consult a qualified French notaire, avocat, or chartered accountant before acting on anything you read here. The English Investor accepts no liability for decisions taken on the basis of this article.
Last Updated: August 2026
Your taxe foncière notice is either already in your online account or about to be. We have written before about how to fight a bill that is wrong, and that article deals with errors. This one deals with the opposite situation, where the bill is arithmetically correct and you are simply entitled to pay less than it says.
France runs a surprisingly generous set of reliefs on this tax. There are permanent exemptions, temporary ones, an automatic hundred-euro discount, and a cap that stops the bill exceeding half your income. The government sets them out in its own guidance on how the tax is calculated and reduced, refreshed this month.
The catch, and it is a significant one for readers of this site, is that most of these reliefs attach to your habitation principale. If your French property is a holiday home and you live in Kent, several of them are closed to you before you start. What follows separates the ones you can realistically claim from the ones you cannot, with the thresholds and deadlines for each.
First, a Reminder of What You Are Reducing
The tax falls on whoever owns or holds the usufruit of a property on 1 January, for the whole of that year, and it stays payable even when the place is let to a tenant. It attaches to buildings, not to land in the ordinary sense, and the test is physical. The structure has to be fixed to the ground so that it cannot be moved without demolition, and it has to have the character of a genuine building. That is why a caravan escapes the tax while the same caravan escapes nothing once it sits on masonry footings, and why a houseboat moored permanently and fitted out for living is caught.
The sum itself multiplies your valeur locative cadastrale, the theoretical annual rent your property could earn, by the rates your local authorities vote. Half the rental value is knocked off first, a flat 50 percent abatement meant to stand in for management, insurance, depreciation, maintenance and repair costs. We take that calculation apart in our guide to how the tax actually works, and read a real notice line by line in our anatomy of a French tax bill.
One timing quirk is worth banking. If you improve the property during the year, the higher rental value does not bite until 1 January of the following year, so a summer extension shows up on the bill after next, not this one.
The 2026 Calendar
The 2026 taxe foncière year. Source: economie.gouv.fr. Chart: theenglishinvestor.com
Notices appeared in online accounts from 27 August 2026 for owners who do not pay monthly, and from 19 September for those who do. Payment falls due on 20 October at midnight if you pay online, and on 15 October by other means, though cheques, transfers and cash are only permitted where the bill comes to less than 300 euros. Above that figure electronic payment is compulsory.
The Reliefs, and Who Actually Gets Them
Six distinct mechanisms sit in the legislation, and the administration lists them together on its exemptions and reductions page. They are easier to compare side by side than to read about in sequence.
| Relief | Who qualifies | Automatic? | Open to a non-resident second-home owner? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Permanent exemption, age or disability | ASPA and ASI recipients, plus over-75s and AAH recipients within the income limit | Yes | No, principal residence only |
| €100 dégrèvement d’office | Aged 65 to 75 on 1 January, within the income limit | Yes | No, principal residence only |
| Income cap | Household income below the article 1417-II thresholds | No, you must apply | No, principal residence only |
| Two-year new-build exemption | New builds, reconstructions, additions, some changes of use | No, declare within 90 days | Yes |
| Three-year energy-works exemption | Owners doing qualifying energy works, where the commune has voted it | No, and only in some communes | Yes |
| Vacancy dégrèvement | Unfurnished rental empty involuntarily for 3 months or more | No, you must apply | Yes, if you let it |
The pattern in the right-hand column is the honest headline of this article. The reliefs built around the taxpayer, meaning age, disability and modest income, all require the property to be your main home. The reliefs built around the property, meaning new construction, energy works and enforced vacancy, do not care where you live.
The Personal Reliefs: Generous, and Mostly Closed to You
Full exemption on a principal residence goes to three groups. Recipients of the old-age solidarity allowance and the supplementary invalidity allowance qualify outright. Owners over 75 on 1 January qualify if their revenu fiscal de référence for the previous year sits below the ceiling in article 1417-I of the tax code. Recipients of the disabled adults’ allowance qualify on the same income condition, these permanent exemptions sitting at articles 1382 and following of the tax code, with the conditions set out on the official page for the tax on built property. Nothing has to be claimed, because the administration applies the exemption itself once the conditions are met.
Read one line of the guidance carefully before celebrating, because the exemption stops at the tax itself. It does not extend to the household waste charge, which stays payable in full and which we cover separately in our article on the TEOM. An exempt pensioner still gets a bill, just a much smaller one.
Below 75 there is a smaller but entirely automatic benefit that almost nobody outside France has heard of. If you are over 65 and under 75 on 1 January and your income sits under the same article 1417-I ceiling, 100 euros comes off the tax on your principal residence without you lifting a finger. People who have moved into a retirement home can keep it on the home they left, provided that home stays free of any occupation.
The Income Cap, With Real Numbers
The most valuable relief for anyone on a modest income is also the one that requires you to ask. Where the tax on your principal residence exceeds half your income, the excess can be discharged. Eligibility runs off the thresholds in article 1417 of the tax code, and the tax administration explains the cap on its own site. For the 2026 bill the reference is your 2025 revenu fiscal de référence, the figure on the income tax notice you received this summer.
2025 revenu fiscal de référence limits for the 2026 cap. Source: economie.gouv.fr, art. 1417-II CGI. Separate thresholds apply in Martinique, Guadeloupe, La Réunion, Guyane and Mayotte.
Two practical points decide whether you actually see the money. You have to write to your centre des finances publiques, since nothing happens automatically here. And you have a real window, not a moment, because the claim can be made from the day your notice arrives until 31 December of the year following the year the tax was put into collection. For the 2026 bill that means you have until the end of 2027.
The Reliefs a Foreign Owner Can Genuinely Use
Three routes stay open regardless of where you are tax resident, and all three attach to the building rather than to you.
The reliefs built around the taxpayer all require the property to be your main home. The reliefs built around the property do not care where you live.
The first is the two-year exemption that follows new construction, reconstruction, an extension, or certain changes of use such as converting a farm building into a dwelling with substantial works. The rule lives at article 1383 of the tax code. You must tell the tax office within 90 days of the works finishing, and communes can trim their own share of the relief, so what you actually receive varies by town. Our main taxe foncière guide sets out how that modulation works.
The second is a three-year exemption for energy-saving works, granted where the local authority has voted for it and capable of being total or partial. It is worth asking your mairie whether the deliberation exists before you commission anything, particularly if you are already spending on insulation for reasons connected with the DPE letting rules.
The third is the vacancy dégrèvement, which discharges part of the tax when an unfurnished rental sits empty against your will for at least three months. Set out at article 1389, the relief is calculated month by month, it is never granted automatically, and the claim runs until 31 December of the year after the vacancy. We set out the evidence you need in our guide to contesting the bill, because proving the vacancy was involuntary is where these claims are usually won or lost.
What to Do When the Notice Arrives
Open it instead of filing it, and check whether any relief you expected has actually been applied, since the automatic ones are only automatic when the administration holds the right information about your age, your income and the use of the property. Then decide which of the two questions you are facing, because they lead to different letters. If the bill misdescribes your property, you are contesting an error. If the bill is accurate but you meet the conditions for a relief that has not been applied, you are claiming an entitlement.
Both go to the same place, your centre des finances publiques, and both share the same generous deadline of 31 December of the following year. Neither suspends the obligation to pay in October, which is the detail that catches people who assume a pending claim buys them time.
FAQ: Taxe Foncière Exemptions and Reductions
Can I claim any taxe foncière relief on a French holiday home?
Only the ones attached to the property itself. The two-year exemption after building works, the three-year energy-works exemption where your commune has voted it, and the vacancy discharge on an unfurnished rental all remain available. The age, disability and income reliefs require the property to be your principal residence.
What is the €100 dégrèvement and do I have to ask for it?
It is a flat 100-euro reduction on the tax for a principal residence, for owners aged between 65 and 75 on 1 January whose reference income falls below the article 1417-I ceiling. The tax administration applies it itself, so no claim is needed.
How does the income cap work?
Where the tax on your principal residence exceeds 50 percent of your income, the excess can be discharged. Your 2025 reference income must fall below €30,083 for the first family quotient part, plus €7,029 for the first additional half-part and €5,533 from the second. You must apply, and separate thresholds apply in the overseas départements.
Does an exemption cover the bin charge too?
No. The household waste charge is collected on the same notice but sits outside the exemption, so it stays payable in full even by an owner entirely exempt from the tax itself.
When is the 2026 bill due?
20 October 2026 at midnight if you pay online, or 15 October by cheque, transfer or cash, though those methods are only available where the bill is under 300 euros. Electronic payment is compulsory above that.
I finished an extension this summer. When does it hit the bill?
Not this year. An increase in rental value produced by works during the year is only taken into account from 1 January of the following year, and the works may also open the two-year exemption if you declare them within 90 days.
Is a caravan or a houseboat liable?
A caravan or mobile hut escapes the tax unless it is fixed down by masonry attachments. A boat used at a fixed point and fitted out for living, business or industry is liable, even where it is held only by its mooring lines.
