CFE and Local Taxes on a French Holiday Rental (2026): What Owners Pay

Usually, yes. The French tax administration treats furnished letting as a commercial activity, so a holiday rental brings a CFE bill (cotisation foncière des entreprises, a local business tax) even for a private owner. You owe nothing in the year you start, nothing when your gross receipts are €5,000 or less, and normally nothing when the rental is part of your own home. Otherwise the 2026 CFE is due by 15 December 2026, and it can only be paid electronically from your professional space on impots.gouv.fr.

The CFE is one of three local taxes an owner can face, alongside the taxe foncière (property tax, always due by the owner) and the taxe d'habitation on second homes (due when you keep the use of the property). The tourist tax is a different matter: guests pay it, and you or the platform pass it on to the commune.

This guide explains the rules as of October 2026. It is not tax advice: your business tax office (SIE) and your commune's votes decide your exact situation.

Do you have to pay CFE on a furnished holiday rental?

In principle, yes. impots.gouv.fr states that furnished letting is by nature a commercial activity subject to CFE, even when you let as a private individual under the LMNP rules (non-professional furnished letting). It is set by the commune where the property is located, including for owners living abroad, but several exemptions remove it for many small hosts.

The exemptions that cover most small hosts

• Your first year. No CFE for the year you start letting. The following year, the tax base is cut by 50%.
• Gross receipts of €5,000 or less. Below this threshold (receipts excluding VAT, article 1647 D of the tax code), no CFE is due. The receipts counted are those of the reference year, generally two years before the tax year: your 2024 receipts for the 2026 CFE.
• A rental inside your main residence. According to entreprendre.service-public.fr, CFE is not due when the furnished letting concerns a home included in the owner's main residence.
• Your own home let to tourists. If you let all or part of your personal home (your main home, or a second home you occupy yourself outside rental periods), you are exempt by default. Your commune or intercommunality can vote to remove this exemption, so the answer varies by town.
• Occasional letting of part of your home, with no regular pattern, is exempt as well.

Who usually pays: a property bought to be let

The tax administration's official guidelines (BOFiP) define your personal home as the place you live in as your main residence, or a second home you occupy outside rental periods. A flat fitted out only to be let furnished does not qualify. If that is your situation, expect a CFE bill from your second year, as soon as your reference receipts exceed €5,000.

How much is the CFE in 2026?

The CFE is calculated on the cadastral rental value of the property you let. When that value is low, which is common for a single flat, a minimum contribution applies instead. Each commune sets its minimum base within a national range that depends on your receipts. The 2026 ranges are:

• receipts up to €10,000: minimum base between €250 and €597;
• €10,001 to €32,600: between €250 and €1,194;
• €32,601 to €100,000: between €250 and €2,509.

Your bill is that base multiplied by the local CFE rate, so two identical flats in neighbouring towns can pay very different amounts. When the reference period is shorter than 12 months, receipts are brought to a 12-month basis to find your bracket, so a few busy months after a mid-year start can place you higher than expected.

On the income tax side, the CFE is a deductible expense if you file under the régime réel. Under the micro-BIC regime, the flat-rate allowance is deemed to cover all your expenses, CFE included. The guide to Airbnb taxes covers income tax, and the new short-term rental rules explain how the micro-BIC changed for holiday rentals.

When and how do you pay the CFE?

The CFE notice is never sent by post. It appears in your professional space (espace professionnel) on impots.gouv.fr, which is separate from your personal tax account. The tax administration's CFE leaflet (March 2026) warns that the activation code for a new professional space is sent by post within 60 days, so create yours well before December.

• Deadline: 15 December 2026 for the 2026 CFE.
• Electronic payment only: online with the "Payer" button above your notice (declare the bank account in your professional space first), direct debit on the due date (sign up by 30 November), or monthly direct debit (sign up by 30 June for the current year). No cheques, no cash; a bank transfer is accepted only for some non-residents.
• Advance payment: only if last year's CFE exceeded €3,000. You then pay 50% of it in June and the balance in December.

Your first year: what to file for the CFE

Two formalities start the clock. First, declare the start of your furnished letting activity within 15 days of your first rental on the government's online business formalities portal (guichet des formalités des entreprises). It is free and gives you a SIRET number to report on your income tax return. Second, file form 1447-C-SD (the initial CFE declaration, Cerfa 14187*16) with your business tax office (SIE) before 31 December of the year you started. It must be filed on paper. This form describes the property and claims the first-year exemption.

First CFE year checklist

1. Register the activity within 15 days of the first stay and keep your SIRET number.
2. Register the property with the town hall if your commune requires it, and show the number on your listings (see how to register your vacation rental in France).
3. File form 1447-C-SD on paper with the SIE before 31 December, and keep a copy and proof of sending.
4. Create your professional space on impots.gouv.fr now, because the activation code comes by post.
5. Declare the bank account you will pay from, or sign up for direct debit before 30 November.
6. Track your gross receipts per property and per year: they decide the €5,000 exemption and your minimum-base bracket.
7. Ask the SIE or the town hall whether your commune has removed the exemption for furnished lettings in a personal home, if that is your case.

Do you also pay taxe d'habitation on a holiday rental?

The taxe d'habitation now applies only to second homes and other furnished homes that are nobody's main residence. It depends on your situation on 1 January, and for a holiday rental the owner usually pays. In a decision of 15 June 2023, the Conseil d'État (France's highest administrative court) upheld the tax for owners who let short-term while remaining free to accept or refuse bookings, even though a guest was staying in the flat on 1 January.

• A second home you also use: the taxe d'habitation is due. The CFE is exempt by default (see above).
• A property reserved exclusively for letting: in principle no taxe d'habitation, because the property sits in the CFE base instead. The burden of proof is on you: you must be able to show it is fitted out and reserved for rental all year and that you cannot use it yourself.

The second-home surcharge

Communes in areas with a housing shortage (zones tendues) can add a surcharge of between 5% and 60% on their share of the tax. Each town decides whether to apply it and at what rate, by a vote before 1 October that takes effect the following year. Look for the surcharge (majoration) line on your notice. Relief can be requested in a few specific cases, for example when your job forces you to live away from your main home.

What changed for 2026

• A new local exemption for classified rentals. Since the 2026 finance law, any commune or intercommunality can exempt classified furnished tourist accommodation (meublés de tourisme classés) and bed and breakfasts from the second-home taxe d'habitation, for its share (article 1414 bis of the tax code, see the official deliberation sheet). A vote before 1 October applies from the following year, only to the floor area used for the classified rental, and you must send a declaration to the tax office before 1 March each year. Ask your town hall whether it has voted.
• Bases up 0.8%. Cadastral rental values, which drive both the taxe d'habitation and the taxe foncière, rose by 0.8% in 2026 under their automatic inflation indexation.

Also keep the occupation declaration current: if it was never filed or the use changed, update it before 1 July in the "Gérer mes biens immobiliers" section of your impots.gouv.fr account. The notice arrives in the last quarter of the year, with a payment deadline in mid-December.

Taxe foncière: always the owner's bill

The taxe foncière is due by whoever owns the property on 1 January, whether it is let, empty or used by you. For 2026, the tax administration's press release of 22 September 2026 sets the deadline at 20 October 2026 for online payment, with the debit taken on 26 October. Bills of €300 or less can also be paid in cash or by card at an approved tobacconist until 15 October 2026. Like the CFE, it is deductible under the régime réel and covered by the allowance under micro-BIC.

What about the taxe de séjour?

The tourist tax is not a tax on you: guests pay it per night, and each commune sets its rates. You collect it yourself on direct bookings, while platforms that take the payment for non-professional hosts collect and pay it on your behalf. Rates, exemptions and declaration schedules differ from town to town; how to collect and automate tourist tax covers the details.

The 2026 calendar for a holiday rental owner

• June: CFE advance payment, only if your previous CFE exceeded €3,000.
• 30 June: last day to sign up for monthly CFE direct debit for the current year.
• Before 1 July: update the occupation of the property in "Gérer mes biens immobiliers" if it changed.
• Before 1 October: communes vote surcharges and optional exemptions for the following year.
• 15 and 20 October 2026: taxe foncière, by the 15th in cash or by card at a tobacconist (€300 or less), by the 20th online.
• 30 November: last day to sign up for direct debit of the CFE.
• 15 December 2026: CFE. The second-home taxe d'habitation is also due in mid-December (exact date on your notice).
• 31 December: form 1447-C-SD if you started letting in 2026.
• All year: tourist tax declarations, on your commune's schedule.

Keeping the numbers ready with Nowistay

No rental tool pays these taxes for you, but they all start from the same figure: your gross receipts per property and per year. In Nowistay, the bookings export downloads a CSV with each booking's amount, channel, platform commission and tourist tax, for the whole account from the Bookings page or for one property from its Advanced settings (see how to export your bookings). On direct bookings, the tourist tax you set up (per guest per night, or a percentage with a per-person cap for unclassified rentals) is added to the guest's price automatically.