Tip for owners and landlords of a holiday home in France:
Income from renting out a holiday home in France must be declared in the annual tax return, of course. However, the double taxation agreement applies here: the tax itself is payable to the French tax authorities, while the German tax authorities merely take the amount of the income into account for progression purposes. In other words, the German landlord MUST declare his income to the French tax office, will then receive a tax assessment, and usually an advance payment for the coming quarters falls due as well. For a French tax return there are, unsurprisingly, only French forms. French tax law applies here, too. Most landlords will find it hard to handle this correctly.
A tax expert in French or EU tax law can be very helpful here. For our own purposes in Munich, we engaged the law firm of Dr Schwab (schwab-ltfi.com), a specialist in international tax law and European law, among other things. He is both a lawyer and a tax adviser, which is an enormous advantage. And best of all: he lives in the same city and you can talk in German.
