Gite: taxe d'habitation demand

We have had a demand from the tax office for taxe d’habitation on our gite. We have contested it (it is not a maison secondaire) and that seems to have been accepted.

However, our local tax office phoned to say they want a letter from our mairie to confirm our property is a gite. I am all for making the life of our mayor and the secretary as easy as possible, so I wondered whether anyone has come across a proforma letter or form for this circumstance I can give them?

We have, of course, paperwork showing we are paying tax on the income from the gite and evidence of payment of taxe de sejour in support.

Thanks, as always, for any advice / help.

won’t the written demand from the impôt perform that function?

Sorry Graham, I’ve not made it clear.
The demand from the tax man is for taxe d’habitation as if we have a maison secondaire. We should NOT be paying taxe d’habitation on our gite - it is NOT a maison secondaire. We appealed in writing and the local tax office seems to have accepted our appeal in principle but are asking for a confirmatory letter from our mairie that our property is a gite and nothing else.
Hence my need (ideally) for some sort of standard wording to save the staff at the mairie having to reinvent the wheel.

Oh dear, Sue! Not so good just before Christmas. You defo ought not have the taxe d’habitation when the gîte is never being used by yourselves for temporary accommodation and is a full out business property.

However, bureaucracy being a national sport, never takes a holiday.

That said, I wonder if this can help you:

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/formulaire/1205-gd-sd/taxe-dhabitation-demande-dexoneration-pour-meubles-de-tourisme-et-chambres-dh

Or perhaps previous SF topic

Hope this helps. Meanwhile, I’ll continue research to see if I can find a standard letter for you to send…

@SuePJ , you may not be alone in this because it looks like there has been a memo floating about the taxe depo. I found this fairly recent article on Connexion that I will copy here in case you di not subscribe

Gîte owners in west France hit by surprise tax bills

Tax is being levied unless owners can prove their properties were not available for personal use on any day of the year. One owner couple in Brittany say they now face closure as a result

17 June 2022 14:32

Many gîte owners are being charged taxe d’habitation on properties as they cannot prove they were not available for personal use on any day of the year

By Liv Rowland

Many gîte owners are being charged taxe d’habitation on properties as they cannot prove they were not available for personal use on any day of the year.

One couple is facing a bill of over €10,000 and say they will be forced to close if no solution is found. Our research shows that the issue is widespread in Brittany, especially in the Finistère area.

The couple, in their 50s, who have built up a business with several gîtes , report that after years paying only CFE business tax and taxe foncière, they have received a tax office letter saying they will be billed for taxe d’habitation, backdated to 2021.

The letter, shown to The Connexion , said they had the properties “at their disposition” on January 1, 2021, the test for eligibility, and even properties used for furnished holiday letting can be taxed if there is no proof pre-dating January 1, 2021 that owners were “totally deprived of personal use”.

They were told to expect a bill but could “make observations”, said one of the couple, who asked not to be named. She said she knew of other gîte owners who had also been billed but whose objec­tions were not accepted as they could not prove their homes were available to let 365 days a year.

Properties used partly for holiday letting may be subject to taxe d’habitation if some personal use is reserved, but the couple said this strict attitude is new to them.

Payment of business tax – they also have a registered letting business and pay business social cotisations – had previously been accepted as evidence that they did not use them personally. Mairies may, optionally, vote to exempt all properties used as chambres d’hôtes and furnished tourist lets from this tax, but only in designated ‘rural revitalisation’ (ZRR) zones, plus in theory only furnished tourist lets classified under the star-rating system benefit.

‘Classified’ lets of a person’s main or second home might also be exempt from CFE if mairies do not vote to the contrary.

“We live opposite the gîtes so there would be no reason to use them,” the owner said.

She said the new tax would be over €10,000 for 2021-22. “We would have to close if we have to pay this. We don’t make huge profits,” she said.

The properties are not in a ZRR and are unlikely to benefit from CFE exemption but even if they did the couple would still be thousands out of pocket as it amounts to much less than taxe d’habitation.

Their accountant believes tax offices to be exploiting the ‘loophole’ to raise more tax. “It seems we’re not even allowed to shut for one day a year. It doesn’t matter if you are going on holiday or want to renovate. We invest heavily in our gîtes and not many people want a holiday in Finistère in winter.”

She had heard claims that this is a trial in the department before a possible roll-out.

The owner said they face competition from people letting via platforms such as Airbnb, who she said often do not have the same overheads. Often Airbnb users let out part or all of their main home, and in some cases do not pay CFE or cotisations.

Taxe d’habitation is no longer levied on most main homes and will be abolished for all from next year; it remains for second homes. In certain areas with housing pressures, mairies can opt to increase their part of the tax on these by five to 60% (a part may also go to an intercommunal body).

The owner said they might look to see if they can change their business footing so the properties come under a different category, such as résidences de tourisme .

From inquiries among other gîte owners in the department, a significant number have received letters relating to taxe d’habitation starting from 2021’s tax. In a few cases tax offices accepted ‘observations’ and dropped the levy but in many others they did not. Some have gone to court but without confirmation of a successful challenge so far.

Reportedly, proof that the gîte was let out on January 1 of the relevant year might help.

We have asked the central tax authorities if they wish to comment on claims that this is an intentional policy being tested in Finistère.

I am not sure there will be a boiler plate letter, rather just an official letter from your Mayor that he is willing to sign off that you have a gite and it will never be used for personal use - eg for your friends/family to use for free.

The key phrase I believe is ‘available for your use’. You need to testify that this is not the case. I understand it is quite simple if you have the backing of the Mayor - he is the one putting his neck on the line, and will probably want to be quite sure it is kosher.

My mayor offered to affirm that my gite was not a secondnd home, but I have had friends stay the odd weekend and decided to let it ride and pay the TdH as I can ill afford to be caught out.

1 Like

Thanks for the replies @Susannah . In fact we have already paid it - just over 700€ - on the basis that the last thing on earth we want is to be chased by the French tax authorities for non-payment of tax.
All we are looking to do now is to get some (probably not all) of it back, since there is some other tax that has been brought in specifically for gite owners - can’t remember the initials (it’s relatively new - just realised it’s the CFE tax mentioned in the article). We’re realistic about what we are facing.
We have French friends with a gite who have backing us up on all of this. And a local tax office that is sympathetic. So it’s no big drama - just tedious.

Thanks Adam. I do wonder how the mayor can know for sure what we are doing - especially as he has only been our mayor since the last elections - the previous one knew as much better. We too may have to just accept it - we used to have the occasional friend stay and it’s possible in the future - I could always charge them “mates rates” and pay the taxe de sejour I guess.

Going back to your article @Susannah (for which thanks) - there is no way we have our place available 365 days - we close in winter.

Our only argument - like in the article - is that the cottage is at the bottom of our garden, so why would we use it?

How can the Maire provide such a believable guarantee?

This smacks of a desperate tax dept.

You’re being offered a very French solution - I’d suggest you use it. You won’t be the only one asking for a letter from the mairie with a nice big official stamp on it and I’d make haste. It’s the thin end of the wedge.

Noting that there’s probably a sale-of-business-assets/immobilier and/or CGT issue waiting for you down the line, if your gîte is being confirmed as made available on 0 days per year for private use which it sounds like it should be.

If you’re being taxed as a business then this is nasty that the tax is trying to have it both ways, hopefully this initiative will be nipped in the bud.

Wonder if there’s a local gîte owners association that’s getting together on this?

PS I suspect if you close for the winter, for instance, then there might be something you could provide evidence of being disconnected water? electricity? wondering if there is some official text that could be found defining what makes a property qualify for taxe d’hab generally and arrange proof.

Probably quite right about desperate for taxes.

I am just wondering @SuePJ , if your gîte is possibly in a designated ZRR rural revitalisation zone? That could clear you as exempt forthwith

https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/loda/id/LEGISCTA000034304360

Do you pay CFE Sue? As once we started paying that (being exempt for the first year) the taxe d’hab on the gîte vanished.

Our mayor gets a bit sticky about these sorts of things, so wouldn’t for example certify when we became resident as he had no proof. So whether you need some weasel wording that doesn’t specify one way or another, and just says that Mr & Mrs X live in our commune and have a dependance that is run as a gîte. And hope the mere fact of an official stamp will do it?

Unfortunately Jane the CFE tax has completely passed us by and it’s the taxe d’habitation demand which has appeared first. Our friends had to pay 3 years back tax for CFE and we would rather do that than continue paying tdh.

I too wonder how one can prove a negative and I suspect our mayor will have problems - he seems more of a “play by the rules” guy than our previous mayor. Anyway, OH is going in to talk to him - fingers crossed.

Sadly not - seems virtually every other commune around is!

If you don’t pay CFE then it sorts of pulls the rug out from under your feet re paying taxe d’hab doesn’t it?Buildings in use have to pay one or the other surely?

Perhaps you need a conversation with your tax office to propose this?

CFE is not a specific tax for gite owners - we pay it for a spare bedroom used by the OH for his marketing consultancy business.

Exactly, it is for all “entreprises” not matter what they are or how small.

AS I mentioned above, we are talking to the tax office. At no stage have we said we won’t pay CFE - we didn’t know we had to - any more than our friends who run a gite knew. Hence the fact that he’s had to pay for 3 years.

Sorry I missed that! I have heard of some people who are paying both because they have a tax office that won’t accept that they don’t use it personally and it is solely business premises. But have not heard of anyone who has managed to overcome a truculent tax office on this, which is not to say you can’t do it!

More helpful data

With that, I’ll have to find my cease-and-desist button :face_with_hand_over_mouth: