LGV Bordeaux-Toulouse. For the financing of the line, the inhabitants will pay a new tax
Through David Saint Sernin
Published on
“The LGV is for 2030! “. Tuesday, November 16, 2021, the President of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, a reminder on BFM TV on what date she intends to see the Bordeaux-Toulouse high speed line in use. One of the most optimistic timetables in the Duron report of 2018, a timetable based on the capacity of the state and communities to quickly find the necessary money.
Carole Delga (@CaroleDelga): the Toulouse-Bordeaux high-speed line is planned “for 2030” pic.twitter.com/U8Kqil8wTG
– BFMTV (@BFMTV) November 16, 2021
Funding is not closed
Despite the voluntary speech made by Carole Delga, the financing stage remains to be franchised. And this one always promises to be the subject bitter discussions. The funding round will indeed have to be completed in the following weeks to allow the creation of the local authority umbrella company in April 2022 (the State will finance the project of 10.3 billion to the tune of 4.1 billion of euros. It is up to local authorities to find the rest of the sum, editor’s note).
Some communities are reluctant
Except that in this month of November, a department like Lot-et-Garonne does not want to pay its share.
As for the mayor of Bordeaux, Pierre Hurmic, he took a stand against the project to extend the LGV to the south.
As a reminder, the Occitanie Region has, for its part, pledged to pay 1.2 billion euros. The Department of Haute-Garonne has decided to release 747 million euros. In October, Toulouse Métropole pledged to pay 616 million euros to carry out the project.
New taxes to come
Sums that will be raised on the model of the Grand Paris project : by massive loans, over there creation of an office tax and by the introduction of a special equipment tax, that the inhabitants of Greater Paris already know since it is backed by the housing and land taxes of Ile-de-France residents.
The National Assembly votes on a text
This new tax to come, if the project sees the light of day, will weigh on many inhabitants of the Occitanie region. She started popping up in the debate on Friday, November 10, 2021.
That day, the National Assembly voted an amendment to the 2022 finance bill establishing this new special equipment tax (TSE) directly inspired by that of Greater Paris.
🚄The new Bordeaux-Toulouse line is on track with the vote of an amendment that will allow the future project company #GPSO to collect a special equipment tax for businesses & second homes less than 1 hour from TGV stations#DirectAN # PLF2022 @SylviaPinel pic.twitter.com/GZhRTmEvyd
– Benoit Simian (@BenoitSimian) November 12, 2021
24 million euros per year
According to the text voted, “the product of this tax is set at 24 million euros per year“.
Over 40 years, the income received would therefore bring in 960 million euros. Amounts that would lower the bill for communities.
According to Toulouse Métropole estimates, the proceeds it would receive from this tax would, for example, be spent on its contribution from 612 million euros over 40 years to 506 million euros.
Who will pay ?
Who exactly will pay this new tax? Here is what the text voted on in the Assembly says:
“The product is distributed among all natural or legal persons subject to property taxes on built and non-built properties, to housing tax on second homes and other furnished premises not distributed to the main dwelling and the property contribution of companies in municipalities that are members of public inter-municipal cooperation establishments with their own taxation located less than sixty minutes by motor vehicle from a station served by the future high-speed line. Low-rent housing organizations and semi-public companies are exempt (…) Low-rent housing organizations and semi-public companies are exempt. “
To be paid from 2023?
The schedule has also been announced:
“The TSE will be founded from the following year that of the creation of the public establishment GPSO (i.e. in 2023 if the umbrella company is created in April 2022, editor’s note). It buys a financial contribution of the order of 24 million euros by one to this public establishment. It will be supplemented in a future financial text by a tax on premises used as offices, according to terms similar to those provided for in Île-de-France ”.
This new tax would therefore be paid, from 2023, by the inhabitants of Toulouse, Colomiers, Balma and other municipalities of the Toulouse conurbation, and more generally by a large majority of the inhabitants of Haute-Garonne. It also concerns the inhabitants of Albi, Auch, Foix, Agen, Carcassonne …
Political groups denounce the “LGV tax”
On the other hand, it is already grumpy teeth. In a joint statement, the groups of Europe-Ecology the Vert of Midi-Pyrénées and Languedoc-Roussillon, the Générations Haute-Garonne group and Génération écologie Haute-Garonne signed a joint statement asking “to Carole Delga and Jean-Luc Moudenc full transparency on the LGV tax ”:
Press release: Transparency on LGV tax pic.twitter.com/Q1AeRvDZUc
– Generation • s 31 (@ Generations_31) November 15, 2021
They demand “transparency”
Here is what they explain:
“This new tax system has been proposed to those without government as long as the details of the financial consequences will not be revealed to taxpayers, business leaders, or even elected officials of the assemblies they chair. We ask the government Carole Delga and Jean-Luc Moudenc to make public the conclusions of the financing studies that they have proposed in order to allow everyone to be able to take a fully informed position on the advisability of this project ”
For Greater Paris, the special equipment tax has brought in 117 million euros each year since 2017. When the income from taxes increased from 532 to 764 million euros between 2017 and 2020, thanks in particular to the growing contribution of the office tax.
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