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If you rent your property in Provence, whether a secondary or main residence then you are probably already familiar with the French tourist tax ‘taxe de séjour’ which your clients pay, per night and per person on top of the rental price.
The French commune where your home is located collects the tourist tax or ‘tax de séjour’ from you to finance their tourism board and promote the region (e.g., the Luberon).
The rules have changed as of January 1st 2019.
I met with Virginie Gardi, in charge of the taxe de séjour at the Tourism Board in Apt, to find out more:
Starting January 1st 2019, each category of lodging (castle, bed & breakfast, 1star..) must pay what they call a ‘real’ tax rather than a flat rate. For owners of rental properties in the Pays d’Apt (Apt, Auribeau, Bonnieux, Buoux, Caseneuve, Castellet, Céreste, Gargas, Gignac, Goult, Joucas, Lacoste, Lagarde d’Apt, Lioux, Ménebres, Murs, Roussillon, Rustrel, Saignon, St-Martin-de-Castillon, Saint-Pantaléon, St-Saturnin-lès-Apt, Sivergues, Viens, Villars) an online platform has been created for you to do a monthly declaration, before the 15th of each month for the previous month, https://luberonpaysapt.taxesejour.fr.
You are obliged to keep a register with monthly bookings. An example is downloadable on the platform. You must communicate about the tourist tax in your advertisements and rental property marketing material.
If your rental property is not labeled (1star, gites, etc…) then it is considered to be ‘sans classement’ and therefore a tourist tax proportional to the price per night and number of occupants is required. In order to find out how to calculate the tourist tax a special ‘tax de séjour’ calculator is available on the platform.
If you would like to have your rental property labeled then a dossier is available at the tourism office in Apt. It costs 150€ and is valid 5 years. A tax deduction of 71% rather than 50% off the rental revenue declared for classed rental properties may be of interest depending on your tax regime.