You let your French flat or cottage to paying guests \u2014 a few summer weeks through a platform, a winter let to a contractor, perhaps a full calendar of short stays \u2014 and the rental money lands in your UK account. It feels like simple extra income, and for the platform it is. For the French tax system it is something else entirely: a commercial profit, taxed under its own category, declared on its own forms, subject to its own thresholds that changed sharply in the 2024 finance law, and collected from you even though you live in Britain. British owners who treat French rental receipts the way they treat UK rental income \u2014 same return, same allowances \u2014 routinely overpay, under-declare, or miss the regime that would have halved their taxable base. This guide explains, for a British reader, how France taxes your furnished rental income, which of the two tax regimes applies to you, how a UK-based owner declares and pays, and what to do when the assessment is wrong. Every French term is explained at first use; every decisive proposition is tied to the statute, the case law or the administration’s own published guidance.<\/p>\n
The first surprise for British landlords is one of classification. In the United Kingdom, rent from a furnished flat is property income. In France, rent from a furnished dwelling is not rental income at all in the legal sense: it is a commercial profit, in the income-tax category of b\u00e9n\u00e9fices industriels et commerciaux<\/em> (BIC \u2014 industrial and commercial profits). That single classification drives everything else: the forms you file, the allowances you can claim, the social charges that attach, and the difference between an amateur landlord and a professional one. Unfurnished letting, by contrast, stays in the revenus fonciers<\/em> (land income) category. So the presence or absence of furniture \u2014 beds, cooker, tableware, the equipment that lets a tenant live in the place from day one \u2014 is not a lifestyle detail. It is the boundary between two tax worlds.<\/p>\n The statute draws the line in plain language. After listing dealers and intermediaries, Article 35 of the tax code provides that industrial and commercial profits include, “Pr\u00e9sentent \u00e9galement le caract\u00e8re de b\u00e9n\u00e9fices industriels et commerciaux, pour l’application de l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu, les b\u00e9n\u00e9fices r\u00e9alis\u00e9s par les personnes physiques d\u00e9sign\u00e9es ci-apr\u00e8s”<\/a>, and among those persons: “5\u00b0 bis Personnes qui donnent en location directe ou indirecte des locaux d’habitation meubl\u00e9s”<\/a> \u2014 persons who let, directly or indirectly, furnished residential premises. If you let a furnished flat in Nice or a furnished cottage in Normandy, whether in your own name or through an agent or platform, you are within that description. The administration’s international desk confirms the consequence for non-residents in its published question-and-answer, a non-resident letting a furnished property: what are my tax duties<\/a>: income from letting furnished premises situated in France is subject to income tax in the BIC category and must be reported on the supplementary return 2042-C-PRO in the dedicated section, distinguishing professional industrial and commercial income from non-professional furnished-letting income.<\/p>\n That distinction \u2014 professional landlord (loueur en meubl\u00e9 professionnel<\/em>, LMP) versus non-professional landlord (loueur en meubl\u00e9 non professionnel<\/em>, LMNP) \u2014 is the second classification to grasp. The administration states that furnished-letting is professional only where two cumulative conditions are both met, and the dedicated page sets them out; most British owners of one or two holiday properties fall on the LMNP side of the line, which is generally the gentler side: profits are taxed, but the activity does not carry the full professional apparatus. The practical upshot is that the overwhelming majority of British readers will declare as non-professional furnished landlords, and the rest of this guide is written for them, with the professional regime mentioned only where the boundary matters.<\/p>\n France’s right to tax you at all, while you live in Kent or Yorkshire, rests on the oldest rule in cross-border property taxation: land is taxed where it stands. Article 164 B of the tax code lists the income treated as being of French source, beginning with “Sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9s comme revenus de source fran\u00e7aise : a. Les revenus d’immeubles sis en France ou de droits relatifs \u00e0 ces immeubles”<\/a> \u2014 income from buildings situated in France or rights relating to them. Your French rents are French-source income by definition, so France taxes them first, and the double-tax position is that the United Kingdom, which taxes its residents on worldwide income, gives relief for the French tax under the treaty and its foreign-tax-credit mechanics. The GOV.UK overview puts the UK side in one sentence: You may need to pay UK Income Tax on your foreign income<\/a>, with residence deciding the scope (see UK residence and tax on foreign income<\/a>). In practice this means two returns, two computations, and a credit in the United Kingdom for the tax properly paid in France \u2014 which is why getting the French computation right saves tax twice over.<\/p>\n Within the BIC category, two assessment methods compete: the simplified micro regime (micro-BIC) and the actual-cost regime (r\u00e9gime r\u00e9el<\/em>). The micro regime taxes a fixed fraction of your gross receipts and ignores your actual expenses; the actual-cost regime taxes receipts minus proven costs, including depreciation of the property and furniture (amortissements<\/em>), plus loan interest, management fees, insurance and repairs. Choosing \u2014 or drifting into \u2014 the wrong one is the costliest mistake a British landlord makes, and since the 2024 finance law the thresholds that allocate you between them are far tighter for holiday lets than they used to be.<\/p>\n The current Article 50-0 sets three turnover ceilings, measured on the previous or penultimate calendar year: “1\u00b0 bis 15 000 \u20ac s’il s’agit d’entreprises dont l’activit\u00e9 principale est de louer directement ou indirectement des meubl\u00e9s de tourisme, au sens du I de l’article L. 324-1-1 du code du tourisme, autres que ceux mentionn\u00e9s aux 1\u00b0 et 2\u00b0 du I de l’article 1414 bis du pr\u00e9sent code ; 2\u00b0 83 600 \u20ac s’il s’agit d’autres entreprises.”<\/a> In ordinary language: unclassified tourist furnished lets (meubl\u00e9s de tourisme non class\u00e9s<\/em> \u2014 the standard holiday cottage or flat advertised online without an official star classification) enter the micro regime only up to 15,000 euros of annual turnover excluding tax; ordinary furnished lets that are not tourist accommodation, such as a nine-month student let or a year-round furnished tenancy, enter it up to 83,600 euros. Above the ceiling, the actual-cost regime is compulsory. Below it, the micro regime applies by default but you may elect for the actual-cost basis within the time limits \u2014 an option worth modelling, because depreciation alone often exceeds the flat-rate allowance on a recently bought property.<\/p>\n The flat-rate allowances (abattements<\/em>) that replace your expenses under micro-BIC are fixed by the same article: “d’un abattement de 50 % pour le chiffre d’affaires provenant d’activit\u00e9s de la cat\u00e9gorie mentionn\u00e9e au 2\u00b0 et d’un abattement de 30 % pour le chiffre d’affaires provenant d’activit\u00e9s de la cat\u00e9gorie mentionn\u00e9e au 1\u00b0 bis.”<\/a> So a standard furnished let enjoys a 50 per cent allowance \u2014 12,000 euros of receipts produce 6,000 euros of taxable profit \u2014 while an unclassified tourist let gets only 30 per cent. These allowances cannot fall below 305 euros. The reform behind the tourist-letting figures was Article 45 of the finance law for 2024 (Law No 2023-1322 of 29 December 2023), and its terms were bitterly litigated: owners and hotel-industry bodies challenged the administration’s commentary applying the new 15,000-euro threshold and 30 per cent allowance to 2023 income. The Conseil d’\u00c9tat recited the reform’s substance in its decision, noting that “L’article 45 de la loi n\u00b0 2023-1322 du 29 d\u00e9cembre 2023 de finances pour 2024 modifie les modalit\u00e9s d’application du r\u00e9gime des micro-entreprises, pr\u00e9vues \u00e0 l’article 50-0 du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts (CGI), pour les activit\u00e9s de location meubl\u00e9e de tourisme.”<\/a> and that for unclassified tourist accommodation it brought “la baisse du seuil de chiffre d’affaires d’application du r\u00e9gime des micro-entreprises \u00e0 15 000 \u20ac et fixe l’abattement repr\u00e9sentatif de charges \u00e0 30 %.”<\/a> (Conseil d’\u00c9tat, 8th chamber, 8 July 2024, Nos 492382 and 492582.) For a British owner whose cottage grosses 20,000 euros a season, the message is stark: the micro regime is closed, a full actual-cost return is compulsory, and reconstruction of deductible costs after the event is painful. Keep invoices from January.<\/p>\n Two worked comparisons show why the election matters even where micro-BIC remains available. Take a furnished two-bedroom flat in Lyon let to a postgraduate for the academic year at 900 euros a month: 10,800 euros of annual receipts, within the 83,600-euro ceiling, so micro-BIC applies by default. The 50 per cent allowance gives 5,400 euros of taxable profit with no paperwork beyond the receipts. Under the actual-cost basis, deductible interest of 2,000 euros, charges of 1,500 euros and depreciation of, say, 4,000 euros would leave roughly 3,300 euros taxable \u2014 better, but at the price of full accounts and a 2031 return. Now take an unclassified Dordogne cottage grossing 14,000 euros in a good summer: micro-BIC is available (under 15,000 euros) but the allowance is only 30 per cent, so 9,800 euros is taxable; the actual-cost basis, with heavy running costs and depreciation on the renovation, will very often produce a lower figure. The general lesson is that micro-BIC rewards low-cost lets and the actual-cost basis rewards capital-intensive ones \u2014 and that the election, once made, runs for a fixed period, so model it before you commit rather than after the notice arrives.<\/p>\n One further boundary deserves a sentence, because British owners cross it without noticing: the regulatory status of the let does not change its tax category, but it changes everything around it. Registration numbers, change-of-use permission and fines for unlawful short-term letting belong to regulatory law, analysed in the companion piece on second-home holiday lets, registration, change-of-use permission and fines<\/a>; this article deals only with the income-tax consequences once the letting exists. A compliant registration does not reduce the tax, and an irregular letting does not remove it \u2014 the tax office will happily assess income from a letting that the town hall would happily fine.<\/p>\n Brexit did not create a special tax status for British landlords; it simply left them, like other non-EU owners, inside the ordinary non-resident machinery: a French return for French-source income, French instalments, French social charges computed from that return, and a floor rate of tax that surprises almost everyone the first year. The machinery is navigable, but only if you file the right forms at the right offices \u2014 and the most common British failure is filing nothing in France on the assumption that the UK return covers everything. It does not. France taxes the French house first, and it expects a French return to prove it.<\/p>\n The declaration circuit for a non-resident furnished landlord runs through two documents. The rental profit itself is reported on the supplementary return 2042-C-PRO, in the section for non-professional furnished letting (or the professional BIC section for the rare LMP case). Under the micro regime, you enter gross receipts and the administration applies the allowance; the international desk’s guidance describes the micro boxes and the 71, 50 and 30 per cent mechanics by letting category. Under the actual-cost regime, you first determine the taxable result on return No 2031, filed not with your personal tax office but with the business tax office (service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises<\/em>, SIE) responsible for the area where the property stands \u2014 the office of the most valuable property if you own several \u2014 and then carry that result onto the 2042-C-PRO. The English-language service-public overview of income tax on furnished-rental income<\/a> walks through the same architecture for residents, and the non-resident Q&A adapts it to owners abroad at furnished letting by a non-resident<\/a>, with the general property-income position for non-residents summarised at non-residents receiving French property income<\/a>.<\/p>\n Then comes the floor rate \u2014 the taux minimum<\/em> \u2014 which is the single most misunderstood line on a non-resident’s assessment. Article 197 A provides that the ordinary scale applies to persons without a French tax domicile who receive French-source income, but “l’imp\u00f4t ne peut, en ce cas, \u00eatre inf\u00e9rieur \u00e0 un montant calcul\u00e9 en appliquant un taux de 20 % \u00e0 la fraction du revenu net imposable inf\u00e9rieure ou \u00e9gale \u00e0 la limite sup\u00e9rieure de la deuxi\u00e8me tranche du bar\u00e8me de l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu et un taux de 30 % \u00e0 la fraction sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 cette limite”<\/a>. In substance: at least 20 per cent on the lower slice and 30 per cent above, even if the ordinary progressive scale would have given a lower figure. There is, however, a statutory safety valve in the same article: “lorsque le contribuable justifie que le taux de l’imp\u00f4t fran\u00e7ais sur l’ensemble de ses revenus de source fran\u00e7aise ou \u00e9trang\u00e8re serait inf\u00e9rieur \u00e0 ces minima, ce taux est applicable \u00e0 ses revenus de source fran\u00e7aise.”<\/a> If you can show, with worldwide evidence, that the French tax on all your income \u2014 French and foreign \u2014 would be taxed at a lower average rate, that lower rate applies to the French income. For a British landlord whose only substantial income is a modest French rental profit plus a UK pension, this worldwide-rate claim (taux moyen<\/em>) regularly cuts the bill, but it must be affirmatively made with full documentation; the administration applies the minima by default. The constitutional robustness of the minima has itself been litigated up to the Conseil d’\u00c9tat on a priority question of constitutionality concerning non-residents whose entire income is French-source (Conseil d’\u00c9tat, 9th\u201310th chambers combined, 3 February 2023, No 468904, decision 468904<\/a>) \u2014 a reminder that the floor rate is contested terrain where a well-documented file matters.<\/p>\n Social charges (pr\u00e9l\u00e8vements sociaux<\/em> \u2014 the CSG, CRDS and related levies that fund French social protection) form the second layer many British owners discover late. The principle for property income is stated in the Social Security Code: “Les personnes physiques fiscalement domicili\u00e9es en France au sens de l’article 4 B du code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts sont assujetties \u00e0 une contribution sur les revenus du patrimoine assise sur le montant net retenu pour l’\u00e9tablissement de l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu”<\/a>, including “a) Des revenus fonciers”<\/a>. For furnished BIC profits the computation runs through the same return-based machinery, and for non-residents the applicable levies and affiliation questions have a long and litigated history \u2014 including the line of claims known as the Dreyer case law on social charges, for which the international desk maintains a dedicated complaints channel for non-residents whose earlier claims were never processed. The practical guidance is therefore threefold: expect a social-charge assessment on top of the income tax shown on your French notice; check which levies appear and on what base; and if your history includes disputed pre-Brexit social-charge assessments, use the dedicated channel rather than an ordinary letter. Do not assume that because you pay National Insurance in Britain, no French social levy can apply to French rental profits \u2014 the two systems attach to different bases under different statutes.<\/p>\n Payment runs through the contemporary-instalment system (acomptes contemporains<\/em>): once rental profits are known to the system, monthly or quarterly instalments are levied, and a wrongly computed instalment \u2014 for example after a regime change or a corrected return \u2014 produces a wrongly high direct debit for months. The administration’s guidance explains that the instalment can be corrected by filing an amending entry while still possible, and otherwise by sending an amending 2042-C-PRO on paper to the non-residents’ personal tax office (service des imp\u00f4ts des particuliers non-r\u00e9sidents<\/em>) in Noisy-le-Grand. British owners who move between micro and actual-cost regimes, or who stop letting mid-year, should diary this step: the assessment may be right while the instalments remain wrong, and only an amendment fixes the cash flow.<\/p>\nA. Why Is Your Furnished Let a Commercial Profit and Not Simple Rent?<\/h3>\n
B. Micro-BIC or Actual-Cost Basis: Which Regime Applies and What Does It Cost?<\/h3>\n
II. How Do You Declare, Pay and Correct the Tax as a British Owner?<\/h2>\n
A. Which French Returns, Offices and Minimum Rates Apply to a UK-Based Landlord?<\/h3>\n
B. How Do You Get a Wrong Rental Assessment Corrected or Repaid?<\/h3>\n