Fires: the Government announces tax aid for the victims

Within a week a “fire unit” will be launched with the key to tax aid for people, companies and communities affected this summer by the fires, the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, announced on Monday in an interview with the Dauphine Libere. “We want to give a little oxygen to all those who have directly suffered from the fires,” the minister declared in the columns of the regional newspaper, through “support devices for affected people, companies and communities.”

For people whose property has been permanently affected, Gabriel Attal already mentions “mainly three measures”: an exceptional deadline for the collection of income tax, a suspension of local taxes (real estate tax and housing) in relation to damaged housing and a possible downward revision of rents. values, “according to the depreciation of the property”.

On the business side, the minister promised “deferrals in the payment of tax deadlines” and accelerated return of VAT or CICE credits, “to give a boost to your cash flow.”

“We will have to learn lessons”

The numerous fires linked to the heat waves that France has been going through since June have set a sad record this year: that of the largest area of ​​hectares burned at this stage of the year since the start of satellite data in 2006, according to the European System of Information on Forest Fires (EFFIS), which however specifies that the country experienced worse years in the 1970s, before the European standardized data.

Once the fires have been extinguished, President Emmanuel Macron will bring together all the actors from the departments concerned to reflect on the “fire prevention and firefighting model” in France, the Elysee announced on Sunday. “We will have to draw lessons from what has happened and we will change our means of action and anticipation,” added Gabriel Attal on Monday, promising “new measures starting next summer.”

“In addition, we will continue to increase the resources allocated to firefighting in the next budget,” he promised, “with additional credits for civil security.”