French General Tax Code
In forceI.-An annual tax on office premises, commercial premises, storage premises and parking areas is levied within the territorial limits of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Var and Alpes-Maritimes departments.
II.-.The tax is payable by the owner, the usufructuary, the lessee under a construction lease, the emphyteutic lessee or the holder of an authorisation for temporary occupation of the public domain constituting a right in rem who, on 1st January of the year of taxation, has a taxable premises.
III.-The tax is due:
1° For office premises, which means, on the one hand, offices as such and their immediate and essential outbuildings intended for the exercise of an activity, of whatever nature, by private individuals or legal entities or used by the State, local authorities, public establishments or bodies and professional bodies and, on the other hand, professional premises intended for the exercise of liberal activities or used by associations or private bodies whether or not pursuing a profit-making aim;
2° For commercial premises, which means premises intended for the exercise of a retail or wholesale activity and services of a commercial or craft nature as well as their adjoining covered or uncovered storerooms and adjoining sites permanently assigned to these sales or service activities;
3° For storage premises, which means premises or covered areas intended for the storage of products, goods or merchandise and which are not topographically integrated into a production establishment;
4° For parking areas, which means premises or areas, covered or uncovered, intended for the parking of vehicles and which are the subject of a commercial operation or are attached to the premises mentioned in 1° to 3° of this III without being topographically integrated into a production establishment.
IV.-For the assessment of the immediate, adjoining and annexed nature of the premises mentioned in III and for the calculation of the surface areas mentioned in 5° of V and VI, account is taken of all premises of the same nature, excluding common parts, that a private or public person owns at the same address or, in the case of multiple addresses, in the same topographical grouping.
In assessing whether the parking areas referred to in 4° of III are annexed, account is also taken of areas which, although not part of a topographical grouping comprising taxable premises, are made available, whether free of charge or not, to users of taxable premises located in the immediate vicinity.
V.-The following are exempt from the tax:
1° Office premises, commercial premises, storage premises and parking areas located in a zone franche urbaine-territoire entrepreneur defined in B du 3 de l'article 42 de la loi n° 95-115 du 4 février 1995 d'orientation pour l'aménagement et le développement du territoire, as well as those located in a town centre revitalisation zone defined in II of Article 1464 F of the present code, in a rural business revitalisation zone defined in III of Article 1464 G or in a priority urban policy district defined in Article 5 of Law no. 2014-173 of 21 February 2014 on programming for the city and urban cohesion ;
2° Premises and parking areas belonging to foundations and associations, recognised as being in the public interest, in which they carry out their activity;
3° Premises specially fitted out for administrative archiving and for carrying out research activities or activities of a health, social, educational or cultural nature;
4° Administrative premises and parking areas of public primary and secondary education establishments and private establishments under contract with the State under Articles L. 442-5 and L. 442-12 of the Education Code;
5° Office premises with a surface area of less than 100 square metres, commercial premises with a surface area of less than 2,500 square metres, storage premises with a surface area of less than 5,000 square metres and parking areas of less than 500 square metres;
6° Storage premises belonging to agricultural cooperative societies or their unions;
7° The premises and areas of park-and-ride facilities, which are understood to mean car parks providing links to different public transport networks and whose exclusive purpose is to facilitate passenger access to these networks, as well as only those parking spaces that are used as park-and-ride facilities within the premises mentioned in 4° of III of this article;
8° The spaces adjoining a commercial premises mentioned in 2° of the same III arranged for the exercise of sporting activities.
VI.-Tariffs are applicable under the following conditions:
1° Tariffs per square metre are applied within the perimeter of all municipalities located within the territorial limits defined in I;
2° Tariffs per square metre are set in accordance with the following provisions:
a) For office premises: €0.94;
b) For commercial premises: €0.39;
c) For storage premises: €0.20;
d) For parking areas: €0.13.
These rates are updated on 1 January each year according to the forecast consumer price index, excluding tobacco, adopted in the Finance Act for the year. The value resulting from this revaluation is rounded up, if necessary, to the next euro cent.
VII.-For the application of V and VI, exhibition centres and premises used primarily for congresses are treated in the same way as storage premises.
VIII.-Taxpayers are required to file a declaration accompanied by payment of the tax, before 1st March each year, with the competent public accountant for the location of the taxable premises.
The procedures for filing the tax declaration are set by order of the minister responsible for the budget.
IX.-The tax is paid when the declaration is filed. It is collected and controlled according to the procedures and under the same sanctions, guarantees and privileges as turnover taxes. Claims are presented, investigated and judged according to the rules applicable to these taxes.
X.-The annual proceeds of the tax are allocated to the local public establishment "Société de la Ligne Nouvelle Provence Côte d'Azur" created in Article 1 of Ordinance no. 2022-306 of 2 March 2022 relating to the Société de la Ligne Nouvelle Provence Côte d'Azur and for the financing of the mission defined in the first paragraph of II of the same Article 1.
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