Hi everybody,
Apologies if I have missed a thread on this topic - but I simply cannot find the information I need.
My wife and I are running a B&B in SW France. We are aware that we are required to collect 0,55 per adult/per night Tourist Taxes. What I cannot find, is…after we collect these taxes, how are we meant to pay them.
Do we report out income somewhere? The reason I ask, is that I have received an invoice for payment of tourist taxes. It states an amount on it, which does not reconcile with my records, and we have already been the target of some official looking correspondence demanding payment for “obligatory” funds or contributions. I am simply unsure if what I have received is true and correct or just another convincing looking scam.
Can somebody provide accurate information as to who collects the tourist taxes from us once we have collected from the tourist and how these funds are paid?
Many thanks for your help and advice on this - we are ready to tear our hair out!!!
Have a look on your ComCom website, there should be a section there detailing what Taxe de sejour is payable with a downloadable/printable Excel spreadsheet. At least thats what we get. We have to submit the spreadsheet with a cheque (paid to the tresor) to the local tourist office every 4 months. I’m surprised you didn’t receive any info regarding this when you registered your business with your Mairie/tourist office.
Who sent you the original communication telling you the rate of TT to collect? Whoever that was, is presumably the authority that collects the tax, or if not they will be able to advise.
Hi Anna, is this question unable to be answered because it is different for all? For example, are all B&B/Gite owners required to pay tourist tax to say…The Centre for Public Finances? So sorry if I am sounding harsh - I am seriously at my witts end. There is endless information on many forums speaking to the mandatory tourist taxes payments to be collected by B&B/Gite owners etc…but that is precisely where the information ends…so we still have no idea as to how to pay the taxes.
Currently, we have not reported any earnings as yet, and I receive an invoice for 221,20 Euros payable to the Centre des Finances Publiques? How does this work?
We have been targeted before, from fraudulent companies trying to extort “mandatory” payments for things that simply do not exist and as we have not reported any income, I am suspicious of the invoice received.
It’s a local tax. Each commune sets its own rate. Some communes don’t charge tourist tax at all. You need to find the info at a local level. Have you asked at the mairie? Presumably you are registered with them as a tourist accommodation provider.
I would also be suspicious and wouldn’t pay this invoice without checking it out.
Yes, we are registered with the Mairie. We received no helpful advice upon registration - nothing at all. I am aware the rate we are to charge is 0,55 centimes per adult per night - from this point I simply have no idea what to do with the collected taxes. I will go to the Mairie again to see if I can glean any useful information. Thanks for the advice. Have a great afternoon
Good plan, and I would also take the invoice with you and show it to them and ask if it’s genuine. They should be able to tell you the answer straight away.
Hi Bruno, we’re in Dept.79 and have to pay our Taxe de Sejour to our main Tourist Office in Bressuire but it seems to depend on where you are as to who it’s payable to. Pop into your local Tourist Office they should be able to help you or at least point you in the right direction and I’d also take the paperwork in so you can maybe sort out the invoice you’ve received. Hope this helps!
My local Tourist Board has just sent me some paperwork to encourage me to re-open/re-register our chambre d’hote.
(They have already spoken with me at great length over the phone.)
Simple way of recording guests … at the end of each month, I am to send in a completed form (even marked zero) … and every quarter the Office de Tourisme will send me a bill in retrospect…for what is due (TdSejour) if anything.
So… I’m off to the Mairie on Monday and probably/possibly get re-registered.
Your local tourist office should have the information, and cheques are usually made out to the trésor public although in some advanced places you can do it all online. Usually you have to pay three or four times a year on set dates, using a form provided by your tourist office. Round our way we have to calculate it ourself, and then pay it straight to the TP.
The Marie may well be useless if you are in a small commune. Tourist tax goes to pay for supporting the tourist offices and tourism, so usually the tourist offices are a much better bet.
Thanks Jane. We are in a small commune of less than 500 people. The town hall website has next to nothing useful on it - and the town hall/mairie opens from 9am - 12:15 Mon-Fri only.,hence my questions - next to no help. We are kind of on the cusp of two different Tourism Office and do get bounced from pillar to post a bit between the two, so you can understand why we are so frazzled. Who would have thought that it would be so difficult to find the information to pay a bill. We are trying to do the right thing and cannot find what we need to do so.
THANKS TO ALL WHO HAVE COMMENTED - and a bon weekend to all !!!
Well don’t get too frazzled, as I’ve never heard of anyone being hugely taken to task for being late in paying. When I turn up during the right period they always look surprised.
Hi my commune has 90 residents. The tax de sejour is paid to the Communauté de communes.
Most if not all have a website where you enter how many guests even if zero and periodically they send a bill to collect it. I have heard of some communes who just conjur up a standard annual charge, thats bad news if you havnt had any customers! The accountant of our c.c.has an office in town at the Tourist office so i just go and give her a cheque. Most of my guests are exonéré travailleur seasonaire but i still have to declare them, ie 12 people amount of tax taken zero.
Like everything else there are penalties if you under declare . If your Mayor isnt forthcoming the Tourist office will guide you and can give you papers to fill on each month if you dont like internet.
My local Bureau de Tourisme sends me a document to use for each month (3 months’ worth on one email…)
I complete said docs as and when I have guests and take from those people the Taxe de Sejour… then at the end of the Quarter I send the docs back to the BdT (even if with ZERO to declare…) then BdT sends me an Invoice to pay if appropriate.
Question: I am renting a place that the landownders state is a ‘meublé’ and therefore not categorized as a ‘gite’, and yet I have no idea if what they say is in actuality, correct.
For my first year in France, I believe (but I’m not absolutely sure) that it is important to be living in a bona-fide meublé apartment, as opposed to a vacation/gite type of place. Apparently there’s a big difference, at least in terms of my being able to prove that this is my primary place of residence…
While I do have a lease agreement, I wonder if anyone knows if, in the eyes of French law, I should know ‘for sure’ that it is indeed a meublé rather than a gite.
Hope this makes sense. Please let me know if my question is confusing, as it’s kind of important… I could ask the Mairie, but then again it’s great to have a chance to ask folks on SF first. I guess I’d prefer not to risk getting the landowners in trouble in case they are trying to avoid taxes or something. If they are, then I’d rather avoid a confrontation with them, and just find another place to rent.
