RE Associations Protest Property Sales Tax

PARIS-Property groups are protesting over a French Senate proposal for a 15% capital gains tax on capital value increases that result from new transport networks forming part of the Grand Paris project for the transformation of the Greater Paris area.

The Senate tax proposed is aimed to apply to the first sale by the owner of a property within 1.5 kilometers of a station in the Ile-de-France region during a 15-year period. It would not apply to sales by a developer. The tax would be capped at 5% of the sale price. But French real estate associations called the plan “inefficient, unjust and dangerous” and argued that it would deter investment in the areas concerned. The proposed tax is intended to help finance the new transport infrastructure, the main feature of which is a 140km figure-eight automated metro line linking the main business and residential areas of Greater Paris.