Waste management represents a major social issue, both in terms of public health and environmental. This is why “the energy transition law for the Green Crescent of 2015 requires, in its article 70, to deploy incentive funding for the public waste service. It set the target at 15 million inhabitants in 2020, then 25 million in 2025. ”It was even the Ministry of the Economy that reminds it on its official portal! However, current taxation is not incentive. Thus, according to the available data from the Ecological Transition Agency (ADEME), only 200 communities had chosen to adjust the invoicing of some 6.5 million users according to the quantities of waste that they produce in 2022. Therefore, the vast majority of French people therefore pay this public service regardless of the volume of their trash cans.
A very wide tax
TEOM, or household waste removal tax, is the main source of financing for local waste collection and treatment services. A real annex of the property tax, it appears on the opinion of the latter and applies to all the built properties subject to it. Whether you are an owner or usufructuary, so you are liable for your main but also secondary residence, as well as for any property built in your possession, including a simple parking space! You will not escape the Teom either if you live in a new construction temporarily exempt from property tax or if you benefit from a reduction of the latter because of your age and your modest resources.
Unplugger
There is hardly only the dwellings located in an area where the garbage removal service is not assured which can be exempt from this tax … provided, however, that the community has not taken a deliberation eliminating this possibility. However, if accommodation remains unoccupied for a long time for a reason independent of your will, you can request a discharge or a reduction in the TEOM.
On the other hand, if the owner remains legally liable for the payment of the garbage removal tax, the law authorizes him to recover it automatically in the rental expenses if the accommodation is rented! The amount must then be established in proportion to the period actually rented, knowing that the lessor has the obligation to deduct the management fees applied by the tax administration.
A salty bill
If the TEOM is used to finance the removal of household waste, its calculation has nothing to do with the service rendered since it corresponds to half the cadastral rental value of your property – which is revalued each year to take into account inflation -, which is then multiplied by the rate set by the municipality. Management costs are also added to the invoice. Finally, in rare cases, an incentive part of the tax can be applied depending on the amount of waste produced.
However, according to a study of the UFC-Que Choisir consumption observatory published in March 2025, the TEOM reached an average of € 144 per inhabitant in 2023, which represents an increase of 7 % in one year and 20 % in five years. The consumer defense association denounces the major tax deviations between the municipalities, by reporting the level of tax claimed to the number of users. According to this survey, Aix-en-Provence is the most taxable of cities with more than 80,000 inhabitants with a tax of waste removal displayed at € 243 per inhabitant, against € 240 for Paris and € 233 for Marseille. “In the opposite extreme, some large cities contain their Teom per capita at less than € 100, such as Orleans (€ 89.20), Villeurbanne (€ 77.24) and, the champion all categories, the city of Brest (€ 67.95)”, explain the authors.
