Parliamentarians from all sides launched an appeal this week before the Council of State to end the tax advantage for Airbnb owners. Elected officials want to apply the reduction planned for the niche in the 2024 budget.
If the reduction of the Airbnb, Booking, Abritel and other tax loophole is indeed planned in the 2024 budget, the government, which adopted it in error at the end of last year, is not yet imposing its application. This has the gift of irritating eight elected officials, deputies and senators, mainly from the left, but also from the right. The latter filed an appeal on Wednesday March 6 before the Council of State to push the executive to end the tax advantage for owners of tourist rental accommodation.
A tax reduction on furnished tourist accommodation such as Airbnb which contributes to the housing crisis
The protest comes from parliamentarians from all sides, including senator LR Max Brisson and socialist deputy Iñaki Echani. By having filed an appeal before the Council of State, they hope to force the government to apply the reduction of the Airbnb tax loophole, a measure which, according to them, is crucial to alleviating the housing crisis in many regions.
More precisely, the dispute revolves around the advantageous taxation from which furnished tourist accommodation such as Airbnb, Abritel or Booking benefit. The latter have reductions of up to 71% of their rental income, whereas they should, in theory, only be 30% in areas where access to housing is particularly difficult.
This advantageous reduction is seen by its opponents as a real incentive to favor tourist rentals, rather than traditional rentals. All this widens the deficit of accessible housing for local residents, and more particularly young people and precarious workers.
Parliamentarians want the tax loophole that protects Airbnb accommodation to disappear
The contested measure is, however, planned for in the 2024 budget. It is also estimated at 330 million euros in revenue for the year 2023, according to the Court of Auditors. But its application remains a subject of concern regarding the policy of not increasing taxes, a promise from Bruno Le Maire and Emmanuel Macron since 2017.
Applying what is written in the budget would therefore amount to going back on this commitment. The amendment proposed in October by PCF senator Ian Brossat, who therefore wanted to align the tax reduction for Airbnb rentals with that of traditional rentals, was voted on, and the government’s “technical error” that we spoke of above is now today seen as an attempt to preserve Airbnb’s tax niche, with a view to the Olympic Games and under the influence of the apparently effective lobbying of the American platform.
However, there could be changes soon. Within the government of Gabriel Attal, there is no consensus. The new Minister of Housing, Guillaume Kasbarian, does not share the same opinion as his colleague from Bercy, Bruno Le Maire. History will record that he defended the reduction of the tax allowance. The parliamentarians therefore filed a summary suspension and an appeal on the merits for abuse of power with the Council of State. The appellate court will have to act quickly, given the imminent approach of the 2024 tax return on 2023 income.
Sources: Clubic, Release
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