The non-EU citizens will now pay smaller tax on capital gains, in January 2015 the Supreme Court of France accepted new rate of 19% (plus 15.5% of social charges) instead of 33.3%. Earlier, non-EU residents paid 33.3%, while the Europeans and the French paid 19%. The Court held that such a situation is discriminatory and illegal, informs the ee24.com citing french-property.com.
New amendments to the law are in force since the beginning of 2015 and apply to all physical persons regardless of their nationality, but are not related with legal entities that forward taxes through the company. In addition, there is no difference whether the French property was purchased via a local real estate broker or not.
However, it is not clear whether the French tax authorities will return the difference to those who paid the tax in accordance with the old rate as the French government has not yet decided this matter. Let’s recall that "luxury tax" introduced by the Socialists for wealthy citizens is not charged since the beginning of 2015.
Now the real estate market in France is going through hard times. The construction sector has "rolled" to the position of 17 years ago: in 2014 there were commissioned 297,532 new residential projects, which is by 10.3% less than in 2013.