The Senate revises upwards the special taxes for the LGV Toulouse-Bordeaux and other lines
It is (perhaps) a day to mark with a white cross for the pro-LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux. A little less than 48 hours ago, the Senate, the upper house of parliament, adopted some decisive amendments concerning the financing of the LGV Toulouse-Bordeaux, also known as the GPSO (Grand Rail Project of the South-West). These measures also concern the high-speed line projects between Montpellier and Perpignan, as well as Marseille-Nice. An approach that was carried out as part of the review of the PLF 2023.
One of them first of all concerns the special tax on equipment (TSE), created a few months ago in the 2022 finance bill. This was created with the desire to supply only the project company dedicated to GPSO and thus reduce the share of investment by local authorities in Occitania and New Aquitaine concerned by this future equipment.
A TSE for 29 million euros per year in revenue?
Initially, it was to report 24 million euros for a project, and concern all natural and legal persons located within an hour’s drive of a station served by this future LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux. The Medef of Haute-Garonne was (and still is) headwind against this new taxation, just like the CPME Haute-Garonne.
“From the moment you have a high-speed line, exceptional economic activity is generated and companies can thus expect greater growth than they would have had without it. We must take this windfall effect into account. Thanks to public investment, private companies will grow more than they hope“, had justified Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse and president of the Metropolis during a debate in the metropolitan council in October 2021. On the side of the regional council of Occitanie, the will in the communication was to always minimize its impact. “It only concerned owner households. 42% of households would therefore not be affected“, she said a little while ago. According to the community, the increase of this TSE on the property tax for the population would be 0.4%, which would yield an average amount per additional tax household of between three and four euros. It is not much, of course, but in a context of inflation and reduced purchasing power, it is highly inflammable politically speaking.
Only, this calculation does not take into account the modifications enriched freshly by the Senate. The amendment adopted by the latter inflates and fixes the product of this TSE at 29.5 million euros per year, from 2024, while the collection of this must start in 2023.
“However, additional resources will be needed to enable local authorities to provide the funding needed to move the project forward. This is why, to take into account the requests of the communities concerned, this proposed amendment, as of 2024:
– on the one hand, to raise the ceiling of the TSE from 24 million euros to 29.5 million euros per year;
– on the other hand, to create, on the model of the TSE, a special additional tax distributed only between persons subject to the business property contribution (CFE), for an annual amount of 21.5 million euros”, can we read in the text voted by the Senate.
The latter must thus become the so-called “office” tax, inspired by the financing model of the Grand Paris Express. Moreover, the economic model of this urban transport project has always been the source of inspiration for the communities at the head of GPSO, namely the regional councils of Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine, as well as the Metropolises of Toulouse and Bordeaux. .
Tourists will checkout
If this first amendment particularly concerns the LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux, the second adopted by the Senate concerns the three LGV projects in the country and “attacks” particularly the tourist flows of the territories concerned.
“In order to finance these lines, the local authorities have requested the establishment of a new basket of resources and no longer requested an additional tax to the tourist tax or the flat-rate tourist tax. This tax at a rate of [34 %] will be added to the tourist tax instituted by the municipality or the EPCI on the territory of the departments concerned by the future lines. It will be established from 2023 for the financing of the New Provence Côte d’Azur Line and from 2024 for the other two new line projects”, is it written on the text adopted by the upper house of parliament.
Thus, it will be up to the communities that collect the proceeds of the tourist tax each year to pay in turn to the various project companies the added share created by the legislation.
“The Eurosud team and all its partners today welcome the decisive cross-partisan parliamentary action, led by the senators of the territories“, thus rejoiced in a press release Jean-Louis Chauzy, the president of Eurosud Team, an association which has been working behind the scenes for years for the realization of the LGV between Toulouse and Bordeaux. It remains to be seen whether the Assembly will adopt the text as amended by the Senate, on this point in particular.