Pre-filling your tax return may not be completely accurate everywhere.
Latecomers, it’s time to look at your tax return! The deadline for sending it to the tax authorities is fast approaching and some French people only have a few days left to finalize filling out the form: until Tuesday May 21 for people who declare in paper version, all departments combined; until Thursday, May 23 for residents of departments 1 to 19 who declare online. For the others, there are still a few days off.
In this final stretch, certain checks must be carried out by taxpayers. Because if the tax authorities pre-fill your declaration directly, errors may have crept in. The General Directorate of Public Finances (DGFiP) has even already warned that a line must be particularly vigilant on the part of declarants before final validation.
Around a million French people are asked to check box 5ND of their declaration, located in the “Your income” section. This is the line entitled “Furnished rentals general case”. This part of the declaration corresponds to the income received from the rental of a house or apartment (or several) which is declared to the so-called “micro-BIC” regime. Generally, it is the owners carrying out short-term rentals who fill this box.
For several years, rental platforms based abroad, such as AirBnb, Abritel or Booking, have transmitted the amounts you received during the year directly to the tax authorities. This allows the DGFiP to display a message on the declarations of the persons concerned, which indicates the amounts that must be declared. Taxpayers are then responsible for reporting them in the appropriate box.
However, this year, a hiccup prevented the procedure from being implemented as usual. A problem with the transmission of information has emerged since the introduction of a new European law. Platforms based abroad did not send these items.
So, if you only used AirBnb, Abritel or Booking, no amount will appear and it will be up to you to indicate all of your income received from the rental. If you have used AirBnb and, also, Leboncoin for example (or another French platform), an amount will be displayed but it will only correspond to the income received from the French platform. It will then be necessary to correct it by adding other rental income from other foreign platforms.
So remember to check this line carefully and do not try to reduce the amount because the tax authorities will receive the information in the coming months. He will therefore be able to compare the amounts indicated and actually received. Be careful of the fine if you cheat…