Un impôt immobilier tout en un : rendement, progressivité et faisabilité

We examine the feasibility of a single property tax on the property and real estate holdings of households that would replace all the existing taxes on this type of wealth, in particular, the property tax, the IFI tax, the DMTO tax, the tax on real estate capital gains and the tax on rental income received by landlords. Net property worth, after deducting real estate debt and 50,000 euros for the value of the principal residence, would be taxed at a rate of 1% up to the threshold of the IFI (1.3 million euros) and at 1.5% beyond that. The revenue would be shared between the State and the local authorities through an equalization fund. After presenting the reasons underlying our reform proposal, we first assess the profile of the tax yield and tax burden according to income, family size and age by drawing on the INSEE wealth survey (enquête Patrimoine). The partial decorrelation of real estate income and assets makes a large tax yield difficult, even if the expected tax revenue is equivalent to the revenue lost from the taxes replaced. A cap on a single property tax in terms of disposable income would bring down its yield fairly quickly. JEL classification: H23, H61, H71, R51