Legal obligations

What is a furnished tourist property?
Furnished tourist accommodation is a furnished house, flat or studio, for the exclusive use of the tenant, rented to a visiting clientele who stay there for a day, a week or a month and who do not make it their home (Code du Tourisme – Art D324-1).

The rental period for any one person may not exceed 90 days or 12 consecutive weeks (Art 1-1 Loi Hoguet n°70-9 du 2 janvier 1970).

Your declarations :

• It is compulsory to declare your furnished accommodation (whether or not it is classified) to the local council.
  All you have to do is fill in Cerfa form no. 14004*04 and hand it in or return it to the Town Hall with your full contact details (including your e-mail address), or make the declaration online at https://www.declaloc.fr/.

• Declaring your rental activity at the business formalities office (GFE)

If you are starting out as a non-professional furnished lettings business (LMNP) or a professional furnished lettings business (LMP), withinthe first two weeks of starting your business you must submit a business start-up or commencement of activity declaration electronically via the business formalities portal (GFE): formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr or procedures.inpi.fr.

This will allow you to

• obtain a SIRET number
• publicise the existence of this activity
• indicate the tax regime you have chosen.

Proceeds from the collection of this tax are earmarked for expenditure to promote tourist numbers in the municipality or grouping, or for expenditure on measures to protect and manage natural areas for tourism purposes.

This tax was introduced by the law of 13 April 1910 to provide local authorities with additional resources to promote tourism and improve tourist facilities.

Its application and amount are set by the commune of Orcières, which carries out actions to promote tourism.

You collect it, then pay it to the commune’s tax collector.

Additional tax

An additional tax of 10% to the tourist tax has been introduced by deliberation for the benefit of the Hautes-Alpes departmental council.

The additional tax is established and collected in the same way as the actual or flat-rate tourist tax to which it is added.

It is collected on the territory where it applies by the communes and public establishments for inter-communal cooperation, which collect the tax and pass it on to the beneficiaries.

The services of the Commune d’Orcières are entirely at your disposal to inform and assist you in collecting, declaring and paying the tourist tax.

If you have any questions about tourist tax, please contact us:

By e-mail: orcieres@taxesejour.fr
By telephone
04.76.09.14.21 / 06.71.83.83.25
https://orcieres.taxesejour.fr/

Renting out furnished accommodation is considered to be a commercial activity, not a form of property income. Income from letting out furnished accommodation or bed and breakfast is subject to income tax, in the Industrial and Commercial Profits (BIC) category. The tax regime depends on the total amount of turnover (excluding VAT) that the landlord achieves each year if he is liable for VAT, or if he is not liable for VAT on turnover (including VAT) (the turnover limits are updated each year).

The French Tax Code also distinguishes between simple furnished lettings and classified furnished lettings (see table below).

There are 4 tax regimes (see table below):

• The micro-enterprise scheme (micro BIC, the most common scheme used by lessors),
• The simplified actual scheme,
• The normal actual system,
• The auto-entrepreneur scheme.

The Lemeur Act of 19 November 2024 toughens the micro-BIC scheme, which is very popular with occasional hirers. From 2025:

• For classified furnished accommodation (such as gîtes or chambres d’hôtes), the tax allowance will fall from 71% to 50%, with the annual income ceiling lowered from €188,700 to €77,700.
• For unclassified furnished accommodation (standard rentals on Airbnb), the tax allowance falls to 30%, with a ceiling on annual income of €15,000 (compared with €77,700 previously).

These new rates will apply to rental income received from 1 January 2025. There is another blow for LMNP investors. They will no longer be able to deduct the property’s depreciation when calculating capital gains on resale.

For full details of how to file your tax return for furnished tourist accommodation, visit: https: //www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F32744