I. – La Poste is subject, at the place of its main establishment, to direct local taxes levied for the benefit of local authorities and various establishments and bodies in accordance with the rules laid down for determining the bases of these taxes.
II. – The taxes referred to in I are established and collected under the following conditions:
1° (Repealed)
2° (Repealed)
3° The tax bases of La Poste are subject to an abatement due to the constraints imposed on this operator in terms of serving the entire national territory and participating in regional development. The abatement does not give rise to compensation by the State.
Each year the rate of the abatements provided for in the first paragraph of this 3° is set by decree, up to a limit of 99%, so that the proceeds of these abatements contribute to financing the cost of La Poste’s additional territorial coverage as assessed by the Autorité de régulation des communications électroniques, des postes et de la distribution de la presse, in accordance with IV of Article 6 of Law no. 90-568 of 2 July 1990 relating to the organisation of the public postal service and France Télécom ;
4° The rate applicable to the bases of property tax and business property tax is the national weighted average rate resulting from the rates applied the previous year by all the local authorities, groupings and various establishments and bodies authorised to collect the proceeds of direct local taxation and their additional taxes;
5° The rules relating to the control, collection and litigation of direct local taxation as well as the provisions of article 1641 sont applicables. However, for the taxes paid by La Poste, the rate mentioned in I of this article is set at 1.4% and the rates mentioned in II of the same article are set at 0.5%;
6° The proceeds of the contributions relating to the taxes referred to in I, less the fraction of the contributions relating to the tax mentioned in article 1520, are allocated to the general budget of the State.
The fraction of the proceeds of the taxes referred to in I relating to the tax referred to in article 1520 is distributed, in accordance with criteria set by the local finance committee, between the municipalities or their public establishments for inter-municipal cooperation that have instituted this tax and within whose territory establishments of La Poste are located.
A decree in the Conseil d’Etat sets, as necessary, the conditions for the application of this article, after consultation with the local finance committee.