Passed and again canceled. The Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal repealed this summer a deliberation adopted on April 1, 2019 by the Est Ensemble* territorial council setting the rate of the household waste collection tax (TEOM). A tax attached to the property tax paid each year by the owners.
This is the third time that deliberations fixing the rates of the TEOM of the territorial public establishment (EPT) have been canceled by the courts. Already in October 2022, the administrative court of Montreuil considered that the vote on the 2020 tax was illegal. In 2020, it is that of 2018 which had been repealed by the courts.
In its judgment of June 30, the administrative court of appeal judges “that a significant part of the personnel expenses taken into account by Est Ensemble for the fixing of the TEOM 2019 (…) are unrelated to the service of collection and processing of household waste “. However, she recalls, the TEOM “is exclusively intended to cover the expenses incurred (…) to ensure the removal and treatment of household waste and waste”.
“The estimated TEOM product set at 52,030,000 euros in the 2019 budget (…) is clearly disproportionate to the amount of expenditure incurred by the waste collection and treatment service”, adds the administrative jurisdiction. Which concludes: “It is established that the household waste collection tax for 2019 was used to finance expenditure unrelated to the collection and treatment of household waste and waste. »
“It’s a dishonest process”
The three deliberations were denounced by Jean-Paul Lefebvre (DVG), opposition municipal councilor in Noisy-le-Sec. This had been dismissed by the administrative court of Montreuil at first instance in 2020 concerning the deliberation of 2019. “The court of appeal finally recognized that there had been an abuse. EPT took 22% more than needed. It must not use the TEOM as a general tax to finance its operating budget. It is a dishonest process. Deliberations had already been canceled, but Est Ensemble continues to do so. »
The left-wing elected official plans to take legal action over the latest deliberations voted on the TEOM rate. “This tax is levied on the same tax notice as the property tax, he recalls. As 60% of people are tenants on Est Ensemble, they don’t even know that they are paying it because they don’t have a tax notice. But the tenants also finance it indirectly. In particular, it is taken into account in the calculation of the charges levied by social landlords. »
“Taxpayers must then go to court, but no one wants to take these steps”
If justice has canceled the deliberation of 2019, it will be difficult for taxpayers to be reimbursed for the 9.5 million euros in taxes considered to be overpaid. “Most people are unable to get reimbursed because claims filed online on the Taxes website are systematically rejected, assures Jean-Paul Lefebvre. Taxpayers must then go to court, but no one wants to take these steps. It’s very complicated… In addition, you have a limited time to contest a tax. For TEOM 2019, for example, it had to be done before December 31, 2020. The deadline has passed…”
The elected therefore plans to create an association for the defense of taxpayers to facilitate future legal proceedings for individuals. For its part, Est Ensemble has not said its last word. The community specifies that it will appeal to the Court of Cassation, considering that “in its decision the Administrative Court of Appeal of Versailles retains only part of the justifications provided by Est Ensemble concerning the TEOM 2019, while the Administrative Court of Montreuil had agreed with the EPT at first instance by rejecting the motion to set aside”.
*Bagnolet, Bobigny, Bondy, Les Lilas, Le Pré-Saint-Gervais, Montreuil, Noisy-le-Sec, Pantin and Romainville, i.e. some 435,000 inhabitants.
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