Firms or households: who pays land taxes? The contribution of the Land Files Database to the geography of local tax incomes
Ménages et entreprises : qui sont les principaux contributeurs à la fiscalité locale foncière ?
Résumé
This paper discusses the contribution of the Land Files Database to the geographic analysis of local governments’ tax income. Recent tax reforms in France have increased the weight of land taxes in local governments’ fiscal resources. While local land taxes are paid by both households and firms, previous local tax databases did not allow to discriminate between these various types of taxpayers. The Land Files Database fills the deficiencies of other databases by providing data on the tax contribution of business land and premises at the municipal scale. Building on the case of Aix-Marseille’s metropolitan area, the paper identifies research avenues for the analysis of spatial inequalities between local governments and the role of the geography and sectoral structure of the local economy. The results show major spatial variations between municipalities in the amount and in the weight of land taxes’ income. While firms are the major contributor to local governments’ tax mix in the majority of municipalities, several of them depend rather on households’ contribution. The share of land taxes in the tax mix of local governments depends on urbanization patterns as well as on the sectoral specialization of local areas. The data also show that tax revenue for each job vary between economic sectors. These results provide new insight on local governments’ potential strategies to capture and maximize tax incomes and on planning choices between housing and economic activities. These data also are of special interest in the context of recent efforts of the central State to regulate land consumption.
Cette note de recherche discute la façon dont les Fichiers Fonciers peuvent enrichir l’analyse géographique des recettes fiscales du bloc communal. Cette source pallie les limites d’autres bases de données fiscales en permettant d’identifier à la maille communale la contribution des locaux à usage d’activités à la taxe sur le foncier bâti. À partir du cas de la Métropole d’Aix-Marseille, le texte présente des pistes pour analyser les disparités spatiales entre communes en matière de recettes fiscales, en fonction de la géographie et de la composition sectorielle du tissu économique métropolitain. Il montre l’importance de cette source dans le contexte récent des réformes de la fiscalité locale.
Mots clés
Entreprises
Fichiers fonciers
Fiscalité locale
Foncier économique
Entreprises fichiers fonciers fiscalité locale foncier économique Business land firms land files local taxes Classification JEL : H71 R12 R14
fichiers fonciers
fiscalité locale
foncier économique Business land
firms
land files
local taxes Classification JEL : H71
R12
R14