Airbnb tax loophole: the Council of State rejects the requests for interim relief from hoteliers and two senators

The Council of State rejected the request for interim relief from three professional organizations representing hoteliers and tourism professions as well as that of senators Ian Brossat (PCF) and Max Brisson (Les Républicains) aiming to cancel the reintroduction of the tax niche benefiting Airbnb type rentals.

In its decision dated Monday, the Council of State considered that there was no "emergency situation such as to justify the suspension of its execution without awaiting the judgment on the merits".

The highest administrative court recalls that a hearing to examine the merits of the case will be held “in the coming weeks”.

A hiccup occurred during the examination of the state budget adopted at the end of 2023: the government had forgotten to delete an article introduced by the opposition significantly reducing the tax reduction for furnished tourist accommodation.

In mid-February, a note from the Official Bulletin of Public Finances dedicated to taxes reintroduced this tax reduction of up to 71% of the turnover generated by rentals of furnished tourist accommodation.

This reintroduction "sows confusion, among representatives of the sector, over the government's real desire to regulate furnished tourist accommodation and put an end to the tax optimization from which this activity has benefited for many years", denounced the association for a professional tourism (AToP), the group of hotels and restaurants of France (GHR) and the union of hotel trades and industries (UMIH).

“It is all the more incomprehensible since the government has just announced a 10 billion euro savings plan,” the professionals said in a press release.

At the initiative of parliamentarians from several sides, the article adopted during the examination of the 2024 draft budget planned to lower the tax reduction to 30% in areas which encounter difficulties in accessing housing.

The government, if it had agreed to review the tax niche, was unfavorable to the idea of reducing the reduction to this extent, and could have removed the measure from the text when using article 49.3 but the had left by "mistake".

The reintroduction of the reduction was decided to “limit the consequences of retroactive application”, according to the ministry.