Bad news if you usually rent out your accommodation via platforms like Airbnb, Booking or Abritel: a tax advantage has just been removed and you will pay more taxes.
In recent years, many owners have succumbed to the siren call of specialized platforms such as Airbnb, Booking or Abritel by offering their accommodation for short-term rentals. A trend that has allowed them to earn sometimes significant income while taking advantage of fairly advantageous taxation. But which has had fairly negative consequences on the real estate market. Indeed, several hundred thousand homes have been withdrawn from the residential rental market to become furnished tourist accommodation, contributing to worsening the housing crisis in France.
But this situation is going to change. Because to stem this worrying phenomenon, several MPs from different political sides have had an amendment adopted this year aligning the taxation of furnished tourist accommodation with that of rental for use as a primary residence.
Until now, short-term rentals were subject to a much lighter and, above all, much more advantageous tax regime than that applicable to unfurnished or furnished rentals for use as a main residence. Thus, the rents generated by short-term seasonal furnished rentals, carried out directly or via platforms, allowed very easy access to the tax regime for micro Industrial and Commercial Profits (micro-BIC), which was particularly light in terms of accounting and taxation.
Thus, for unclassified furnished tourist accommodation, which is the majority of offers published by individuals on digital platforms, the micro-BIC regime applied up to €77,700 of annual revenue, and allowed you to benefit from a 50% tax reduction on the rents received and to be exempt from keeping proper accounts.
And for classified furnished tourist accommodation, the reduction was 71% and could even climb to 92% in certain cases, up to an even higher annual income ceiling of €188,700. On the other hand, unfurnished rentals of accommodation used as a primary residence were subject to the microfoncier regime, with a tax reduction of only 30%.
This imbalance therefore created a strong financial incentive to make short-term furnished tourist rentals, to the detriment of long-term residential rentals. But things have now changed, and furnished tourist rentals received in 2024 will be subject to higher taxation from the 2025 income tax return.
With the new law, the revenue ceiling to benefit from the advantageous micro-BIC regime is lowered from €77,700 to €15,000 for unclassified furnished tourist accommodation, and the tax allowance is reduced from 50 to 30%. And if annual rents exceed €15,000, the activity will then be subject to the real BIC regime, with the obligation to keep accounts and calculate your own taxable net profit.
On the other hand, for classified furnished tourist accommodation and guest rooms, the ceiling of €188,700 of annual rent to benefit from the micro-BIC scheme remains in place, with reductions ranging from 71 to 92%. The same goes for furnished accommodation used as a primary residence, which continues to be subject to the micro-BIC scheme up to €77,700 and to benefit from a reduction of 50%… for the moment.
Of course, we will have to wait to measure the impact of this change of regime on the real estate market, and in particular on that of traditional residential rentals. But one thing is already certain: with the reduction of the ceiling and the allowance, this “tax niche” will become much less attractive for owners who will have to pay more taxes from 2025.