Tax Basics for Seasonal Rental Owners in Megève: What You Need to Know

6 min read

If you rent out a furnished apartment or chalet in Megève on a seasonal basis, French tax law treats you as a “loueur en meublé” — a furnished-rental landlord. That status comes with its own rules, often misunderstood by foreign owners, that determine how your income is taxed, which regime applies, and what you need to register. Here are the basics, checked directly against official sources.

LMNP status: the starting point for most owners

As soon as you let out a furnished property — long-term, seasonally, or for short tourist stays — you’re carrying on a “loueur en meublé” activity for tax purposes. Under Article 155, IV of the French tax code (Code général des impôts), this activity only counts as professional when two conditions are met at the same time: your household’s annual receipts from this activity exceed €23,000, and those receipts exceed the household’s other income (salaries, other business profits, farming income, non-commercial profits).

If either condition isn’t met, you fall under LMNP status — loueur en meublé non professionnel (non-professional furnished-rental landlord). That’s the case for the large majority of owners letting one or two properties alongside other income, which matches the typical profile of a seasonal-rental owner in Megève. Whether the activity counts as professional or not is assessed at the household level as a whole, and applies to every furnished rental the household owns.

Micro-BIC or régime réel: how your income is taxed

Whether you’re LMNP or a professional furnished-rental landlord, one principle stays constant: income from furnished rental is taxed under the BIC (bénéfices industriels et commerciaux) category — business income — not under the property-income (foncier) category that applies to unfurnished lets. That distinction is fundamental, and it determines which tax regime applies and how you file.

Two regimes exist for declaring this income:

• The micro-BIC regime, simplified: you declare your gross receipts, and a flat-rate deduction for expenses is applied automatically (minimum €305), with no need to document your actual costs.
• The régime réel, more administratively demanding but often more favourable if your costs are significant: you file a n°2031 return and deduct your actual expenses, including depreciation of the property and furniture.

The micro-BIC regime applies by default when your receipts from the previous year (or the year before that) stay under a certain threshold — and it isn’t a single threshold: it depends on the type of rental. As of when this article was checked, per the official impots.gouv.fr page fetched directly (last updated 23 April 2026), the micro regime applies up to €15,000 in receipts for unclassified tourist furnished rentals (meublés de tourisme non classés, 30% deduction), and up to €77,700 for guest rooms, classified tourist furnished rentals, and other furnished-rental activities including long-term furnished lets (50% deduction). Above those levels, the régime réel applies automatically. These thresholds have already changed in recent years and can change again: always check the current figure on impots.gouv.fr rather than relying on a number you’ve read elsewhere, including in this article.

Beyond filing your income tax return, being a furnished-rental landlord brings other formalities regardless of your regime: obtaining a SIRET business number, and liability for the Contribution Foncière des Entreprises (CFE, a local business property tax) — with possible VAT or CVAE liability depending on your situation. This is something owners, especially those who don’t live in France, often discover too late. Registering and declaring correctly from the start is far simpler than correcting it after the fact.

The taxe de séjour in Megève

Separate from income tax, the taxe de séjour (tourist tax) is a local tax owed, in principle, by the guest staying in your property — not by you as the owner. Created by a 1910 law, it can be introduced by communes that spend money on welcoming tourists, a possibility extended to mountain communes in 1985. The Megève town hall’s own website confirms it has introduced an actual-basis taxe de séjour (taxe de séjour au réel) across its entire territory, governed by a municipal council resolution dated 1 September 2015, still in force today.

The rate, set every year by the municipal council, varies by accommodation category and classification, and can be revised from one season to the next — we’re deliberately not quoting a figure here, precisely because it changes, and the only reliable number is the one published by the town hall itself at the time you book. In practice, if you let through an online booking platform, the platform often collects the tax automatically on the owner’s behalf and remits it to the commune. If you let directly, you’re responsible for collecting it from your guests and remitting it according to the process set out by the Megève town hall.

Getting these obligations right from the start — status, tax regime, taxe de séjour, registration formalities — avoids a lot of after-the-fact complications, especially if you don’t live in Megève year-round. That’s exactly where the operational side of property management can make an owner’s life simpler, even though it’s never a substitute for personal tax or legal advice: see what seasonal property management with Ascent Megève includes, or read our article on what our management actually includes for the day-to-day side of things.