TheGrocer

We are in the process of buying a property that was once used as a sort of respite home for the elderly. As such it was registered with 8 bedrooms. When we have finished our internal changes it will have 4 bedrooms however the overall number of rooms in the house will only be one less (extra rooms will become larger bedroom, dinning room, study, winter sitting room).

The current tax fonciere and habitation is quite high (ie tax fonciere is 1800 euro).....

Do any members have experience of appealing / or changing these taxes? I will not be earning income, it will become my private house and as such in my mind the rental potential would change dramatically.

Any thoughts / advice welcome

Novocastrian

Quite the project. Good luck with it all. On the TF I think you should discuss it with your Mairie, moreover you should likely keep them in the loop about the changes you plan anyway. Can't do any harm.

EuroTrash

1. If you live permanently in France, ie you are a French taxpayer, your taxe d'habitation bill will be based based partly on the property but also partly on your tax return. If your household income is low, you'll automatically get a reduced taxe d'hab bill. (Not foncières.)

2. If you carry out significant changes, I guess you should get it reassessed in any case. That's not to say the taxes will go down, they may go up if you've made it more upmarket. Presumably the habitable surface area has not changed, and that is one of the main factors used in the calculation.

3. I don't know but I wonder if the taxe d'habitation is calculated differently for a care home.

4. Be aware that the government keeps tossing around a scheme to tax owner occupiers on a fictitious sum equal to the annual rental value, that they would have received if they rented the property out instead of living in it themselves. It's supposed to redress some perceived way in which owner occupiers have an unfair fiscal advantage over tenants. They talked about it last year and it came to nothing, they're talking about it again this year and hopefully it will come to nothing as well. Unfortunately not as crazy as it sounds, because the system has previously been used in France to raise tax revenue, and it happens in other countries.
So looking ahead, if your taxe d'hab is going to be higher than average, it could be wise to build a little buffer zone into your financial planning, just in case Hollande or his successor ever do do this.
Fiscalité : les propriétaires occupant leur résidence principale bientôt taxés ? - L'Express avec Votre Argent

PS If it's a holiday home, 4 wouldn't affect you.

dmu

I thought this was already the case. I can't remember the exact term in French without looking for our last one - "valeur locative" maybe? - but it's marked on the Taxe Foncière demand as such.
I imagine that a care home would have a different tax status from a family home. As you say, the Mairie can give more info, if not the local Tax Office....

EuroTrash

What it will mean is, say your house has an annual rental value of 6000€, when you fill in your annual income declaration the fisc will pretend that you have received this 6000€ rent money from a fictitious tenant, in addition to your other income for the year. So you have to enter this amount on your tax form (or maybe they preprint it, who knows), you will be imposable on it if you're above the tax threshold, and it'll be added to your revenu fiscal de référence so you won't qualify for low income benefits that you maybe used to (such as, reduced taxe d'hab, cheap electricity, etc).

dmu

There's a word for that.... "sournois" springs to mind.

cardi

The more recent H1 form creates extra value in a property much more than the earlier one.

Fill it in at your peril.

bigglesworth

Sorry, what is the H1 please?

audio

I guess he means this:
http://www.impots.gouv.fr/portal/dep...laire_3168.pdf

bigglesworth

Thanks Audio. I have filled out a few of those over the last few years! And always followed by a hike, as more areas get renovated.