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The government in France is trying to rebalance the housing situation in favour of primary residences and renters. This is raising many questions. The press in the UK is often reporting this as a tax on British second home owners, however these taxes concern everyone, the French included.
Briefly
- Taxe d’Habitation has been abolished for primary homes, taxe d’habitation is payable only on furnished properties that are not primary homes, this mainly concerns second homes that are not rented out.
- Owners of furnished rentals should declare the rental income in France (wherever they live), this means they may well be registered as a small business. In this case cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE) is payable and the owner is exonerated from Taxe d’Habitation.
- If a property is rented out AND used occasionally by the owner, then both Taxe d’Habitation and CFE is payable
- All properties are liable for Taxe Fonciere (land tax), these are broadly related to the rental value of the property.
- Unfurnished, vacant properties are covered by Taxes sur les logements vacants (TLV), this is payable on vacant unfurnished properties. This does not concern many properties in the French Alps!
Communes in certain areas of housing stress (all the communes we cover in the Haute Savoie) can increase the tax d’habitation on second homes from between 5 and 60%, I have already seen that some of the communes around here have made their announcements.
Cluses have increased theirs by 30%
The money raised should go to providing low cost housing for residents.
More information on the TLV here
https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F17293?lang=en
Taxe fonciere is increasing too, this affects everyone, French, foreign, main homes, second homes. I have listed some of our local villages here, you can find yours in this article
Chatel 33%
Grand Bornand 32%
Chamonix 28%
Les Gets 25%
Morzine 26%
Montriond 19%
St Jean d’Aulps 24%
