PARIS (Reuters) – The French Finance Ministry wants to reform the tax system enjoyed by short-term furnished rentals such as AirBnB, Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday.
Many large French cities are facing a housing shortage and platforms such as AirBnB, which rent apartments to tourists for short periods, are accused of aggravating the phenomenon.
Last month, three parliamentarians from different parties called for the rules governing these rentals to be strengthened and for the end of the more favorable tax treatment compared to traditional rentals.
“What worries me is that we keep favorable taxation for Airbnbs. I am open to a reform of the taxation of Airbnbs so that it is equivalent to that of other accommodations”, declared Bruno Le Mayor on BFMTV.
“As long as there are windfall effects that are too great and a tax system that is too favorable, there is no reason to keep this tax system which leads to excesses,” he said. added.
This reform is said to be under preparation and it is not yet known whether it will be incorporated into the 2024 budget, which should be announced at the end of September, said an official from the Ministry of Finance.
Among Ile-de-France residents who do not, or only partially, rent their accommodation via AirBnB, nearly 20% plan to do so during the Paris Olympics in 2024, according to a survey that the platform commissioned from the polling institute Ifop.
AirBnB, which is one of the sponsors of the Olympics, declined to comment on Bruno Le Maire’s remarks.
Dominique Debuire, president of the National Union for the Promotion of Holiday Rentals, which brings together the main players in the sector such as Abritel and Airbnb, deplored the reform project envisaged by Bruno Le Maire.
“Increasing the tax burden for hundreds of thousands of middle-class French people, when the government’s objective is to reduce taxes, seems contradictory to us. The best option is of course to make long-term rentals more attractive”, he said in response to a request for comment from Reuters.
(Report Leigh Thomas, with the contribution of Elizabeth Pineau, Kate Entringer, edited by Jean-Stéphane Brosse)
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