Fires: what tax assistance is provided by the government?

In order to «give a little oxygen to all those who have suffered directly from the fires», the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, announced Monday, August 15, in an interview with the Dauphiné Liberated, that the government was going to » from next week» implement tax aid dedicated to communities, businesses and individuals.

Thus, the minister announced the creation of a «fire unit» within the public finance department. This one, in collaboration with the Urssaf, will have for mission to set up a kind of “tax buffer”, of which here is the capacity.

After having had to flee their homes due to the rapid spread of the fires, thousands of people found, on returning home, more or less significant damage. For them, the government plans to adopt three measures. The first concerns an exceptional time limit for levying income tax, so as not to take by the throat of households forced to incur renovation expenses.

The second provides for a suspension of local taxes, which are the property tax and the housing tax, and the third relates to a potential downward revision of rental values. According to the Minister, the application of this last measure will depend on «the depreciation of the goods» and therefore on the importance of the claims within the dwelling.

On the side of the affected companies, Gabriel Attal announced that the «fire unit» would be responsible for postponing the payment of tax deadlines. Typically, businesses must pay their tax in four instalments: March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. The measure should therefore shift the September and December deadlines.

The minister also promised to speed up the reimbursement of VAT or CICE credits. Companies, which must deduct from the VAT collected on their sales or services the VAT they have paid on purchases made for their needs, always have the possibility of benefiting from a VAT credit if the amount they deduct is higher than what they collect. Thus, the repayment of this tax claim will be accelerated by the Treasury.

The Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts confirmed that the President of the Republic was going to bring together all the actors from the departments concerned by the fires in order to reflect on the adoption of a «model for the prevention and fight against fires». The objective is to better anticipate future crises. Among the measures will be the increase in the budget dedicated to the fight against fires, demanded for months by Civil Security.