You might have recently received an email from Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, asking you to declare or validate the information on your French properties. In this article, I’m explaining why the French tax office is asking for this information and what you have to do.
And just before you ask: Yes, Impôts, Trésor Public, Direction Générale des Finances Publiques, and DGFiP all mean the tax office. Ah, d’accord!
Why do I have to give information on my French property?
If you’ve had a French property for a few years, you may know that property owners used to pay a tax on main residences called “taxe d’habitation”. This housing tax has been slowly abolished over the last 3 years. From 2023, all households benefit from an exemption of taxe d’habitation on their main residence called “résidence principale”.
Now, here’s the bad news… Taxe d’habitation hasn’t been suppressed for secondary homes “résidence secondaire”. This means that if you are not a French resident and own a property in France, you will still pay this tax. And if you own more than one property in France, as an investment or gite for instance, you will also pay taxe d’habitation on these properties. Taxe d’habitation will also apply to someone having invested in parking spaces, garages or storage facilities.
Which properties are liable to housing tax from 2023
Housing taxe or taxe d’habitation on second homes and vacant premises are unfortunately maintained. To enable the tax office to clearly identify properties still affected by taxe d’habitation, you will have to validate or declare your properties with your personal www.impots-gouv.fr account by June 2023.
As a property owner, you have to comply with this new (and one-off) reporting obligation. For each of your premises (including car parks, cellars, etc.), you will have to confirm what you are using the property for, who is occupying the premises or if the premises were empty on 1st January 2023.
Doesn’t the tax office already know this?
The tax office usually has part of the information since you were paying taxe d’habitation and because they are informed when a property is being sold. But they don’t necessarily know if this is your main or second home.
Where do I need to declare my French properties
In order to facilitate your declaration, the occupation data known to the tax services are pre-filled in your personal http://www.impots.gouv.fr account. It’s important, even in the case of pre-filled information, to make sure that the information concerning you is correct. If not, you need to correct it. After this first declaration, only a change of situation will require a new declaration on your part.
Deadline to declare your French property
You have until 30th June 2023 to declare the occupancy situation of your property, in the property tab “bien immobilier” of your impots.gouv.fr personal space. You should see a record for each property with the property’s location, size in m2 and number of rooms.
- Click on “consulter” to check the property’s information.
- Click on “declaration d’occupation” to confirm what you use it for. Check that the records states if it's a main or secondary property and check the details of the person living in the property. If details are correct, click on “aucun changement”, if it’s inaccurate click on “nouvelle situation” and update the information.
The good news is that just above this tab, you have a link to check this service in English.
If you need assistance making your declaration, you can call 0 809 401 401, Monday to Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., or go directly to the tax office “Service Impots Particuliers” (SIP) or to your local tax office. For non-residents, you should be able to contact Service Impots des Non-Residents in Noisy-le-Grand and the English helpline +33 1 72 95 20 42 (9 am to 4 pm).
I would advise you to do this now, because we will be soon moving to the income tax declaration session and the tax office will be busier.
How do I declare my French properties
I have posted a how-to video on how to declare your French properties on my YouTube channel. Watch this video here.
