Paris (France) (AFP) – A note from the Senate Finance Committee revealed Wednesday February 18 that more than 13,000 tax households eligible for the real estate wealth tax pay no income tax. These figures obtained via the Ministry of the Economy and Finance confirm the declarations made last January by former Minister Éric Lombard, then denied by the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin.

Published on: 02/18/2026 - 4:49 p.m. Modified on: 02/18/2026 - 8:53 p.m.

More than 13,000 tax households eligible for the real estate wealth tax (IFI) pay "zero or negative" income tax (IR), according to a note from the Senate and revealed a few weeks after a controversy between the former Minister of the Economy Éric Lombard and the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin.

“Around 10% of IFI taxpayers have zero or negative income tax,” indicates the note consulted by an AFP journalist on Wednesday February 18, confirming information from the newspaper Le Monde.

The document specifies that this proportion falls to 7.3%, once the figures are restated by removing people who died during the year or do not reside in France. It is this last percentage which makes it possible to obtain the figure of 13,335 very well-off households, that is to say with assets greater than 1.3 million euros, not paying IR.

These figures were obtained by the Senate Finance Committee, via the General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP), thanks to the crossing of two data: households with the highest real estate assets on one side, those subject to IR on the other.

The figures analyzed by the senators, based on 2024 tax data, show that the proportion of tax households paying no income tax increases at the same time as their wealth: within the 0.1% of households "with the largest real estate assets", the proportion of households not paying IR is 10.2%, while this figure increases to 14.9% for the richest 0.01% of households, i.e. with an average assets of 14 million euros.

Excluding non-residents and people who died during the year, the figures show the same trend, with respectively 6.3% for the richest 0.1%, and 7.6% for the 0.01%.

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“If the reference tax income (RFR) of these categories of taxpayers is not communicated, these elements confirm the declarations of former minister Éric Lombard,” indicates the same note.

In January, former Minister of the Economy Éric Lombard assured that thousands of very wealthy French people did not pay income tax, an assertion which was denied by the Minister of Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin.

“It is not true that tens of thousands of wealthy French people would not pay any income tax. There is no document in Bercy which would show this,” said Amélie de Montchalin on January 14 before the National Assembly.

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“The statements of former Minister Lombard are verified by the data of which we are aware,” said socialist senator Claude Raynal, president of the Senate Finance Committee, on Wednesday during a committee meeting.

“Once we have established this diagnosis, it remains to be understood what mechanisms can explain this disproportion between the wealth” of these households “and their zero, or even negative, income tax,” said Senator Les Républicains Jean-François Husson, rapporteur of the same commission.

“How many benefit from a negative tax, through tax credits? The information has not been communicated to us,” clarified Claude Raynal.

Questioned by AFP, Senator Raynal indicated that a report on the subject would be published "before the summer".

Figures to be interpreted “with caution”

“There is no point in knowing things if we are then not able to make proposals, avenues for improvement,” he explained.

Contacted by AFP, the minister's office indicated that Amélie de Montchalin would not react to these documents. Bercy, on the other hand, told AFP that "these elements (must) be interpreted with caution. The fact of not being taxable for IR does not mean the absence of an income declaration, nor the total absence of income."

“These could in particular be retired households with modest incomes, but having experienced a strong revaluation of their real estate assets, for example in Paris,” indicated the same source, specifying that “additional investigations” were “in progress”.

“We are going to say that it was a half-lie, but a half-lie does not make a half-truth,” reacted the president of the finance committee of the National Assembly, Éric Coquerel (LFI), when questioned by journalists.

Questioned by AFP, the Director General of Public Finance, Amélie Verdier, did not wish to react.

With AFP

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