Each week Sharon Scott of local estate agency 2 Valleys Properties shares a really useful, interesting and helpful guide to ex-pat life in the mountains. You’ll find the full back collection of Sharon’s blogs on our website, and on Sharon’s Facebook page.
This Week: TAXE DE SEJOUR
Certain communes in France can ask holiday makers staying in their commune to pay a taxe de séjour or holiday tax. These communes are usually those that attract a large number of tourists and the money goes towards financing projects linked to providing services for those tourists or to protecting the local environment in order to keep attracting those clients.
Therefore this is a tax that should be paid by the holiday maker and not the business owner, however it should be collected by the business owner and then passed onto the commune (the town hall) at the end of a season.
The tourists liable to pay this tax are those who are staying in resort in a hotel, in a seasonal rental (special tourism type buildings, village de vacances), in a ‘chambre d’hôte’ (this would include the chalet companies), rental apartment or a campsite.
Therefore if your business is classed as any of the above then your guests must pay the tax. The client pays for each night spent in resort. People who do not have to pay this tax are children under 16, state workers staying temporarily in resort (for example rescue workers) and certain people with special circumstances (the handicapped or elderly people who have help at home etc.)
Some people can benefit from paying the tax at a reduced price (families with more than 3 children for example) and certain communes will except other categories of people on low incomes.
The taxe de séjour in Morzine is 1€ per night/per person for accommodation that is not classified (chalets or apartments), 90 cents for a 2 star hotel, 1€ for a 3 star hotel and 1.50€ for a 4 star hotel.
If you go to the Mairie they will give you a planner that you can fill in throughout the season with the number of clients you have and the tax amount they should have paid, then at the end of the season this should be brought to the Mairie with the money of course!
I hope this clears things up for everyone with a chalet company, rental apartment or hotel. You should put up the information about this tax in the lobby or hall of your accommodation so that clients aren’t surprised when you have to ask them for it.
