Dear all,
We bought a 2nd house on the same site / same address from previous same owners as our principal residence in December 2017. We immediately started operating it as a location meublé non-professional then switched it to autoentrepreneur at the beginning of 2019. During 2018, we received a state-approved 3* classification.
In 2018, no mention of paying taxe d’habitation. However, I received a taxe d’habitation request for 2019 in November in the amount of €394. Did a bit of research online and came across a text that said that meublés de tourisme classés were exempt (exonéré) from taxe d’habitation. I stupidly didn’t save the link to the text but sent my claim for the exoneration via the secure message service, got a holding letter in December saying they were studying it and then a mail in February saying a dégrèvement had been given. I assumed (I know, I know) that this was for the whole amount and therefore the end of the matter.
Then a letter dated 3 days after the mail for the €394 plus 10% late fees ergo €433. I sent another mail reminding them about the dégrèvement.
Then arrived another letter dated 4 days after the one above saying that our taxe d’habitation in the amount of €670 (where did that amount suddenly appear from??) had been reduced to €354 which also does not match any of the other amounts requested!
The tax office in Meru are not answering their phones day after day and mails just seem to end up in crossed wires and incomprehensible decisions / communications. I tried phoning the local Trésorerie who are often helpful in these matters but she could not make head nor tail of it and did not have all the amounts claimed listed on her system either.
Sooo, does anyone know about exonerations for gites with stars and / or have some advice about how to handle the above please?
If I have to write out the whole story by mail in French to the tax office only for them to come back with some non-pertinent response again, I think I am going to go crazy!
Thanks in advance for any helpful advice
Danielle
Here is some explanatory text. We have a gîte that is rented year round, and our taxe d’hab was reduced (the gite and our house are covered by one taxe d’hab bill) …but by practically the same amount as we have to pay in CFE. Swings and roundabouts!
In general emails are not the best ways to get answers, as often ignored. Could you go to your tax office and talk to them directly (not the Trésor).
Oh, and the classification system has nothing to do with taxe d’hab. It merely allows you to use the automatic 71% abattement in calculating impôts. Can’t tell you much more as we use régime réel, as works our better for us even tho’ 5*.
Location saisonnière meublée : taxe d’habitation ou Cotisation foncière des entreprises?
Si le propriétaire fait le choix de louer de manière saisonnière et non sur l’année entière, les règles de paiement de la taxe d’habitation ne sont pas les mêmes. On distingue alors deux nouvelles situations :
3) le propriétaire garde la jouissance du logement (résidence secondaire ou principale) lorsque le bien n’est pas loué.
On se retrouve à nouveau dans une situation ou c’est le propriétaire qui devient redevable de la taxe d’habitation. A partir du moment où le bien lui est réservé une partie de l’année, il devra payer la taxe d’habitation même si il loue le 1er janvier. La condition de « réserve » du bien par le propriétaire sur l’année concerne les mois qui viennent après le 1er janvier.
Notons ici qu’on peut se retrouver dans des cas discutables qui donnent lieu à jugement (est-on en location saisonnière ou classique quand le bien est loué la majeure partie de l’année?). Par exemple, le conseil d’Etat a jugé qu’un bien loué pendant 9 mois par an à un étudiant ne rentre pas dans ce cas particulier; une telle location a été catégorisée comme « classique » et c’est donc le locataire qui supporte la taxe d’habitation comme vu au paragraphe précédent.
4) le propriétaire loue en saisonnier toute l’année.
Si le contribuable arrive à prouver que son bien est en location meublée saisonnière toute l’année et qu’il ne s’en réserve jamais la jouissance, on trouve une second cas de figure où personne ne doit payer la taxe d’habitation :
– les locataires s’enchaînent, il serait injuste que celui du 1er janvier paie la taxe pour les autres;
– le propriétaire n’habite jamais dans son bien qui est loué ou en recherche d’hôte, il n’a pas non plus à payer la taxe d’habitation.
On se retrouve dans un des rares cas de figure où la taxe d’habitation disparaît et n’est à payer par personne. Le fisc ne fait pas de cadeau si facilement, le contribuable est toujours éligible à un nouvel impôt : la CFE (contribution foncière des entreprises).
Déclenchée par le formulaire Poi que doit remplir tout loueur en meublé non professionnel, la CFE est à payer au mois de décembre. Elle est à régler sauf exceptions (location d’une partie de la résidence principale par exemple) pour les loueurs de biens en meublés.
Notons qu’elle n’est pas due la première année : si vous déclarez une location meublée en avril de l’année N, la première CFE sera à payer en décembre N+1. Il est fréquent que les contribuables paient le montant minimum forfaitaire puisque le montant de la CFE dépend du chiffre d’affaire qui reste très modeste sur de la location meublée. La création d’un espace professionnel sur « impôt.gouv » sera nécessaire et obligatoire pour la payer par virement.
Thanks Jane, I believe the reason they are not answering their phone is that the office may be closed. Its not exactly close but still in the Oise and we are in a Covid-19 area (all schools closed etc). Don’t really want to do a 2 hour round trip to discover they’re not there but I guess it may be necessary.
I found this text on the offical website and it wasnt the same one as I saw previously but maybe it refers to the same thing I saw:
“Toutefois, les communes (et les établissements publics de coopération intercommunale à fiscalité propre) situés dans les zones de revitalisation rurale ont la faculté d’exonérer de la taxe d’habitation, pour la part leur revenant, les locaux meublés à titre de gîte rural, les locaux classés meublés de tourisme et les chambres d’hôtes”.
I checked with our Mairie and they don’t know anything about us being in a ZRR so I guess that is a dead end.
The last time we paid CFE (same site, same activity), it was only €10 / month so much lower than the proposad taxe d’habitation. Only calculated on where you ‘manage’ your activity i.e. for us the equivalent of a 2m² desk space in our house.
Not sure that is quite accurate…
Well it’s certainly not 10€ for us! We are in the lowest band, and it was over 400€. The rate is set by the communes so I know some people pay more. Perhaps your commune has modest demands…
You can find the ZRR here
https://www.observatoire-des-territoires.gouv.fr/outils/cartographie-interactive/#bbox=-564444,6252801,1606537,1124816&c=indicator&i=typo_zrr.zonage_zrr&s=2018&view=map26
Have just checked and when we last paid in 2017, it was €100 exactly split over 10 monthly payments. I see that the 2020 minimum is 221€ so it appears that there has been a significant revision of the calculations / amounts in between times!
According to the map, we are quite close to a ZRR but unfortunately not in it, worth checking so thank you.
Jane, could you let me know where your Location saisonnière meublée : taxe d’habitation ou Cotisation foncière des entreprises? text came from please? It will be helpful to know if I have to quote it back to the tax office. Seeing how they talk about the ‘fisc’, I’m assuming it is not a state website?!
Our experience in France is that you always pay the contested bill when you receive it, THEN sort out any refund. Nothing seems to stop the process of recovery and additional charges once the bill has been issued…
I the end, they get fed up and take the original amount, plus additional charges, directly from your bank account, and you get to pay the bank charges as well!
Good luck!
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Finally found this text again on “tous sur lmes finances” website but I see that the original article from 2014 was updated in 2019 so may be out of date for 2020? Seems pretty clear though that there is a link between the property being “classé” and taxe d’habitation/CFE and that we should pay CFE as the property is not part of our principal home.
Meublé de tourisme classé et taxe d’habitation : exonération ou pas ?
Un meublé de tourisme classé n’est pas imposable à la taxe d’habitation si le bien loué ne constitue pas l’habitation personnelle du loueur. En revanche, les contribuables dans ce cas sont « assujettis à la cotisation foncière des entreprises puisque l’exonération du 3° de l’article 1459 du CGI ne leur est pas applicable » (source : BOFip, BOI-IF-TH-10-20-20, §50).
En revanche, les personnes qui louent en meublé de tourisme classé tout ou partie de leur habitation personnelle sont « soumis en principe à la seule taxe d’habitation » et bénéficient « en principe » d’une exonération de CFE.
Yeah, unfortunately I’ve just lost my job and our main source of income and our second source, the gites, is rapidly drying up due to the virus. So we literally will soon have no money to pay for food, mortgage and utilities, let alone incorrect tax bills…
They are now trying to claim that we revised our 2019 revenues upwards by 5,000€ at some unspecified time (no memory of this) which increased our taxe d’habitation for the year from €276 to €670 (never informed of that!), from which they have deducted the gite to leave the new amount for our primary residence.
BUT, we have recently started paying less income tax and have dropped below a threshold to gain more childcare support because our revenus had gone down!
I don’t think they know what the hell they’re doing…
whilst admitting I know rubbish about Taxation per se … I fail to see just why any change in your revenue should result in increased Taxe d’Habitation… 
Taxe d’habitation is related to the value of the property… not revenue … or have I just fallen down the rabbit hole… ???
someone… please put me out of my misery… or pass the bottle… either will suffice.
Taxe d’habitation is based on property value but also income as per your tax return.
Remember the changes last year? Taxe d’hab reductions apply if your RFR is below a certain level, and it is progressive.
yes, folks… for reductions… I agree… but for increases ??? 
Well if you had a reduction based on income and your income rises, the reduction will decrease which is the same as the tax increasing…
Mmmmm… perhaps this will make sense to @Danielle_Robins …but the poor lady seems to be having a difficult time at the moment…
best of luck Danielle…
I guess you mean your 2018 revenue that you declared in 2019?
If so you should be able to see in your online tax account, your 2019 declaration with any amendments.
Likewise you should be able to see what your taxe d’habitation bill was, what payments were made and what amount if any is outstanding.
Help is available from solidarity funds for independent workers including micro entrepreneurs who have lost their income due to coronavirus, there was an announcement about it this morning. I didn’t take in all the details because so far I’ve been fortunate not to lose income, but I think there is going to be a flat rate of 1500€ per month, for each month that you can show that your earnings have reduced by more than a certain proportion compared to the same month last year. Or something like that.
Bruno Le Maire, ministre de l'Économie, annonce le vote de moyens supplémentaires pour l'hôpital
Yes, that’s where I was looking earlier and I can’t see any reference to the higher amount, need to look more but have been so tied up with starting my fight against my employer as well as dealing with the restrictions imposed by the virus.
Thanks for the info on the solidarity fund, that’s invaluable help! Booking.com for some unknown reason have not paid us over 600€ due this week and its not showing in the invoices page and they can’t tell me why… aaaarrrghhh! I really think my head is going to explode.
Have been fighting to get my first driving license produced, having passed my test on 17th December, just been told to start my whole application via ANTS again even though they’ve had all the documents they asked me for 3 times over. I despair