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Tax on rental property?


tawny owl
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Hi , living in England we have not long finished renting our property in the Lot for the first year. As we have had quite a few rentals(although in the beginning we did not know if we would have any) we need now how  to sort out our tax due and wonder how the tax year runs in France? We also hope we can claim for furniture ect as our property was quite a ruin some years ago and we have started from stratch so to speak. We really needed to get a return to carry on. We also need to know if we will need support of an accountant or are things straight forward? Also who do we contact? We are coming to France in March.

My thanks

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I presume you are talking about holiday lets. Other people here are more competent than I am in that area.

I have to pay tax on money from a lodger, and also social charges on the rental which come to about a month's rent, but I don't know  if that applies to holiday lets.

The tax year is Jan-December, and you should declare the previous year in May/June. i.e income from Jan-Dec 2011 in May/June 2012

You will have to contact the Service des Impots de non residents if you don't live in France

http://www.ambafrance-uk.org/Useful-addresses

You should get a bill in Oct/November but they are sometimes late.

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I have just checked out the thread and I see what you mean about reading but very useful. My thanks. I wonder if we need support with our tax can anyone recomend an accountant?  to help or advise us. Our property is in Meyronne near Souillac. Thanks again
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(significantly edited) If you are UK-resident, then the discussion about autoentrepreneur does not apply. The key choice to make is whether to be taxed under the micro-BIC regime or the regime réel. The micro-BIC regime is available if your total gross income from your French lettings is less than or equal to 32600€ per annum (2011). With this, the tax form is very simple: you simply enter the gross income from your French lettings on the complementary tax form (no 2042 C) and an automatic rebate of 50% is applied: this 50% is to cover all your costs and you DO NOT deduct any expenses. You are therefore taxed on only 50% of the income. The advantage is that it is VERY simple to do the French paperwork and you will then be taxed at 20% on the 50% of your gross letting income. (As a UK resident you do not get any "personal allowance" or an amount taxed at a lower rate). Bear in mind that you will also have to declare this income on your UK tax return and will be given a tax credit (against this income only) for the tax that you pay in France: if the French tax is higher than you would have paid in the UK (eg because in the UK tax return you claim higher expenses than is allowed for by the 50% rebate in France) then you have no further tax to pay on this income but you don't get further credit for the French tax.

The alternative is to go for the regime réel: this requires you to fill in form 2033 and carry over the result to form 2042. In form 2033 you can detail your real costs and deduct them from your gross letting income: the result is then taxed in France at 20% (and has to be declared again in the UK). Once you have chosen to go for the regime réel, you are stuck with it for 2 years, and if you do not give notice it carries on indefinitely.

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That's an excellent and helpful answer Pickles. Just to clarify, if you are not resident in France the you can't use the AE scheme even if you wanted to? Therefore the choice of the two you have explained and the regime reel which sounds simpler than the AE anyway.
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[quote user="Théière"] Just to clarify, if you are not resident in France the you can't use the AE scheme even if you wanted to?[/quote]

(edited to reduce confusion) Errrr ..... hmmmmm ... you've got me there! I suspect that it might be POSSIBLE to use the AE scheme if you are UK-resident, but I'm not sure what the point of doing so would be. The thing about AE (from my understanding) is that it reduces the burden of social charges that new start-ups face. If you are UK-resident, you don't pay social charges in France (and there wouldn't be any point in doing so). Hence my somewhat cavalier dismissal of the AE discussion.

 

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Errr ... I've just realised that I had confused myself. If you let out a property furnished, then you fall under the statute of LMNP or LMP, depending on the income level. The income is classified as a trade and cannot be treated as micro-foncier, unless the property is let unfurnished. If the level of income is low, it can however be classified as micro-BIC. I will go back and edit my previous posts to correct this in a minute (done now).

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Well I will now print all this out for my husband and myself to read and digest! We have so far rented with French Country Cottages so all payments have gone into our french bank account. I wondered where do you get the form to fill in? and we will indeed seek help when we come to France in March. Is this too late or acceptable? I am thankful we do not need the expence of an account and I hope we can claim for all we have spent on furnishing the farmhouse so far.. My thanks [:)]
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[quote user="Cendrillon"]Micro-Bic is the way to go. If you take the form to your local hotel des impots the first time you have to complete it they will assist you with filling the form, no need to employ an accountant.
[/quote]

Could you explain a bit more on how the micro bic works please

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There are various documents on the Fisc site (www.impots.gouv.fr) that may be of benefit. For each of the forms below there is also a notice to explain the form.

The whole point of Micro-BIC is that it is VERY simple, and so to use it, what you need to do is just complete the form (2042 C along with your main return 2042) at tax return time and send it in.

If you are doing seasonal lets then you ought to fill in the declaration https://www.formulaires.modernisation.gouv.fr/gf/showFormulaireSignaletiqueConsulter.do?numCerfa=14004

and submit it to your Mairie.

Introduction to the French tax system (there is a version in English but it

is out of date)

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptive_3391/fichedescriptive_3391.pdf

Tax forms: Main tax form: 2042

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6892/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6892.pdf

2042C (for Micro-BIC there is basically one line to fill

in)

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6893/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6893.pdf

For the Regime réel  (simplifié or

not!)

2031

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6305/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6305.pdf

2033 – contains the full set of account formats.

http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/deploiement/p1/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6763/fichedescriptiveformulaire_6763.pdf

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Thank you again, I think you have been helpful to a number of people and have indeed stopped us wasting a lot of time. Also the information which mentioned the French tax year. Hopfully when we come over in March we will have time to sort everything and declare it before May.  It is a good thing my husband speaks French otherwise this really would be a nightmare!
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You will probably have a small amount of tourist tax to pay, too: taxe de séjour, based on the number of people who stayed, how old they were (children are likely to be exempt), and perhaps on how smart your holiday let is. It's usually just pence per person per day, but it will add up to a few tens (or hundreds?) of euros. You could try asking the tourist office about that one.

As most of it goes direct to the commune, you're probably well advised to pay it. The mayor may be looking out for every extra cent this year.

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There is another point: if your letting activity is a "meublé de tourisme" (for which it would be best to have passed the declaration mentioned earlier to the mairie, although there is some dispute as to whether this is absolutely necessary) then instead of the 50% defaut allowance for furnished lettings, you are entitled to a 71% allowance - ie the tax that you pay will be based on only 29% of your gross letting income (again, the 71% allowance is supposed to cover ALL expenses, so you cannot deduct anything from the gross income). This may however mean that you become subject to the "cotisation fonciere des enterprises" element of  the new "contribution economique territoriale" - which is the tax that replaces the taxe professionnel.

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