Owning a holiday let in France: which taxes, and when?

Buying a villa in the Languedoc is the easy part. Then the French tax calendar arrives, with names no one has explained to you: CFE, taxe foncière, taxe de séjour. None of it is complicated once you know who asks for what, and when. This guide sets the dates out in the order of the year, using the official French figures for 2026. The 2027 dates are not yet published, so we will update the article. Most of the official pages we link to are in French.

Which situation does this calendar describe?

The most common one: an owner who lives in France and lets a villa as a furnished holiday let (meublé de tourisme) in their own name. A company, a professional landlord or an owner living abroad can have different rules and sometimes different dates. Social contributions and capital gains on resale are separate subjects. If you live outside France, your accountant will tell you how all this fits with your own tax return. Your French accountant (expert-comptable) is the right person to confirm your own case.

Which taxes does a French holiday villa involve?

Seven names come up again and again. Here they are in plain words.

• Taxe foncière. The annual property tax, paid by the owner to the French tax office.
• Taxe d’habitation sur les résidences secondaires. The residence tax that applies to second homes, based on the occupation you declare for the property.
• CFE (cotisation foncière des entreprises). A local business tax. Letting furnished property counts as a commercial activity, so it applies. It is the one people forget most often.
• Income tax (impôt sur le revenu). Your letting income is declared in the spring on an annual return.
• Taxe de séjour. The tourist tax. Guests pay it per person and per night, and the person letting the villa collects it and pays it over to the local authority.
• TVA. French VAT. A villa let in the ordinary way is in principle exempt. The hotel-style exception is explained below.
• IFI (impôt sur la fortune immobilière). A wealth tax on property, which only concerns you above a net taxable property estate of €1.3 million.

You will also hear of an espace professionnel: your business account on the French tax website, impots.gouv.fr. It is where your CFE notice appears and, under the actual-profit regime, where you file. A SIREN is the number that identifies your letting activity as a business.

What happens every month?

• The 15th. Your income tax is deducted in instalments (acompte de prélèvement à la source) on your furnished letting income: every month, or in February, May, August and November if you chose quarterly payments (official tax calendar, in French). You can change the amount in your online tax account before the 22nd of the month for the following month (impots.gouv.fr, in French).
• Before the 15th, in Agde. The nights of the previous month are declared online for the tourist tax (Hérault Méditerranée, in French).

What falls in January?

• 1 January: the reference date. The tax office takes your situation on that day. CFE is due from whoever runs the activity, the property tax from the owner, and the second-home residence tax according to the occupation you have declared.
• 15 January in Béziers and Sérignan, 31 January in Agde. The tourist tax for September to December is paid over. When a booking platform collects the tax, it declares and pays it itself. For other stays, the person letting the villa collects it from the guest before departure, then pays it over. Under a management mandate, we do this for you.

What falls between April and June?

• Mid-April. The online return opens: 14 April in 2026. Furnished letting is declared on form 2042-C-PRO, which supplements your main return. Under the simplified micro-BIC regime, the allowance is 50% for a classified holiday let and 30% for an unclassified one. For 2025 income, declared in 2026, the ceiling is €77,700 for a classified property and €15,000 for an unclassified one; for 2026 to 2028 income, the ceiling for a classified property rises to €83,600 (BOFiP, in French). Our article on star ratings explains classification.
• Early May. Under the réel (actual-profit) regime, the tax return pack (form 2031) is filed on 5 May in 2026, with fifteen extra days for online filers (official tax calendar, in French). It requires an espace professionnel. The result then carries over to form 2042-C-PRO.
• 15 May in Béziers and Sérignan, 31 May in Agde. Tourist tax for January to April.
• Late May, early June. The last online deadline for the income tax return: 21 May, 28 May or 4 June in 2026, depending on your département of residence. The IFI is declared at the same time if your net taxable property estate exceeds €1.3 million, and paid in September or November, depending on your notice.
• 15 June. An advance payment of CFE, equal to half of last year’s bill, if that bill was €3,000 or more. The last day to switch to monthly payments for the current year is 30 June, for CFE, property tax, residence tax and IFI. Switching before 15 June avoids the advance payment (impots.gouv.fr, in French).

What falls in September?

• 15 September in Béziers and Sérignan, 30 September in Agde. Tourist tax for May to August.
• 25 September. The balance of income tax in 2026: debited in one go, or in four instalments up to 28 December if it exceeds €300.

What falls in October?

• 15 October. Property tax. In 2026 the notice has been online since 27 August; payment is due on 15 October, or 20 October if paid online (impots.gouv.fr, in French). A new pool or extension must be declared within 90 days of the end of the works.
• Fourth quarter. The national online registration service for holiday lets is due to open. We will tell you the practical steps as soon as it does.

What falls in November and December?

• From 2 November. Residence tax notices for second homes, online in 2026. Payment is due on 15 December, or 20 December online. This tax follows from the occupation declaration you make on the tax website’s property service (Biens immobiliers). Update it as soon as anything changes.
• 15 December. The balance of CFE, paid online or by direct debit. It is also the last day to switch to monthly payments for next year’s local taxes, with debits from January.
• 31 December. The declaration of your letting activity for CFE (form 1447-C), if you started letting during the year.
• To keep an eye on. The 2027 finance bill, tabled on 1 October 2026 and not yet passed, proposes to cap the depreciation of a holiday let operated on a non-professional basis at 1.5% and €5,000 a year per tax household.

The CFE, in four points

1. Who pays. Anyone letting furnished property is liable: the activity is commercial.
2. How, and when. The notice no longer arrives by post. You find it in your espace professionnel on the tax website, using your SIREN number. Payment is due on 15 December, or the next working day if that is a weekend.
3. What reduces it. Nothing is due in the year the activity starts; the following year, the base is halved. A minimum bill, set by the commune according to your takings, applies when the property’s rental value is lower. Takings of €5,000 or less exempt you from that minimum, though not from CFE calculated on rental value.
4. An exemption worth checking. An owner who uses the villa personally outside letting periods, as a main or second home, is in principle exempt, even if an agency lets it for them, unless the commune or its intercommunal body has decided otherwise. A villa reserved for letting stays within CFE. A villa you occupy as a second home, on the other hand, is liable for residence tax. Your local business tax office (service des impôts des entreprises) will confirm your position.

And VAT?

A villa let in the ordinary way is in principle exempt from VAT; the hotel-style exception, para-hôtellerie, is not something one enters by choice. Our article on VAT on holiday lets in France explains the rule. If your villa falls under it, the calendar gets busier.

• Below the threshold, there is nothing to file: €85,000 of turnover excluding tax in the previous year, €93,500 in the current year. Above it, VAT is due from the following 1 January, or as soon as the second ceiling is crossed. For an owner established outside France, the rules differ (Service-Public, in French).
• Above the threshold, or by option. In 2026 the simplified regime means one annual return on 5 May and two advance payments, in July and December, between the 15th and the 24th. The normal regime means a monthly or quarterly return, between the 15th and the 24th of the following month. Opting into VAT takes effect on the first day of the month in which you declare it, for at least two years.
• From 1 January 2027, the simplified regime disappears: returns become quarterly, or monthly by option or above €1 million of turnover. The last annual return for 2026 is due on 4 May 2027.

What about electronic invoices?

Since 1 September 2026, every business must be able to receive electronic invoices. According to the tax authority’s guidance for furnished-property landlords, a landlord liable to VAT, even if exempt, and holding a SIREN number must choose an approved platform to receive them. For a letting that is subject to VAT, issuing electronic invoices and transmitting sales data becomes compulsory for small and medium-sized businesses by 1 September 2027 at the latest.

What do we do for your villa?

Mademoiselle Conciergerie is a licensed estate agency holding the French professional card (transactions and property management). Under a management mandate, we handle your villa’s formalities: the declaration to the town hall, and collecting and paying over the tourist tax. You get online access to your calendar, your accounts and your documents. When your villa falls under VAT, we prepare your invoices and accounts including VAT, working with your accountant; the returns and the tax choices remain yours.

If you live outside France, your accountant will tell you how this fits with your own tax return. We are happy to work alongside them. Our guides on renting out your villa in France and on entrusting your villa to a property manager describe the other practical steps, and the energy rating has its own calendar in our article on the energy rating (DPE) for holiday lets.

Join our collection

Every villa in our collection is chosen one by one. Villa Halo and Villa Selva give a sense of the spirit. If your villa shares that standard, you can join our collection; every application is considered personally. Our frequently asked questions answer the first questions, and our pages for Agde, Béziers and Sérignan cover the local formalities.

Information checked on 3 October 2026. The 2027 dates will be added as soon as they are published. This article is for information and does not replace personal advice.