MEPs are once again working on a text this Monday that attacks the tax loophole for furnished tourist accommodation like Airbnb, accused of harming long-term rentals.
The National Assembly began examining this transpartisan bill from Annaïg Le Meur (Renaissance) and Iñaki Echaniz (PS) at the beginning of December, without being able to go as far as a vote.
Through points of order and serial interventions in the chamber, the Republicans and the National Rally opposed measures that they consider penalizing “small owners”.
From 3 p.m. on Monday, MEPs will pick up the text where they left off.
Around thirty amendments are still under debate, in particular around the most emblematic measure which reduces to 30% the tax reduction rate from which income from the rental of furnished tourist accommodation benefits, compared to 71% or 50% currently, with an exception in “very sparsely populated rural areas” where the reduction would remain at 71%.
Also read: Airbnb rentals in Paris: “Controls are always necessary”
The device divides the presidential camp: the budget rapporteur Jean-René Cazeneuve (Renaissance), although in favor of a reduction in the reduction, wants to delete the article, by first demanding the conclusions of a parliamentary mission on taxation rental, while others make it the heart of this proposed law.
“Social bomb”
The deputies' text includes other measures: energy performance diagnosis obligations for furnished tourist accommodation, or regulatory tools at the hands of mayors, including the possibility of lowering the duration from 120 days to 90 days per year maximum period during which a principal residence can be rented.
Many elected officials, particularly on the seaside, denounce the shortage of housing in their areas due to the explosion in the number of Airbnbs.
They underline more broadly the “social bomb” that housing represents, at a time when the sector is experiencing a serious crisis, and are calling for a “major law”, promised by the executive on the subject.
Any announcements by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during his general policy declaration on Tuesday in the Assembly will be particularly scrutinized.
The President of the Assembly Yaël Braun-Pivet made it one of the main themes of her wishes to the press on Thursday: “we know to what extent this situation around housing is problematic for our fellow citizens”, “we must legislate” and “let us get down to it ardently and urgently”.
“I challenged the Prime Minister on a major housing bill,” she insisted on France Inter on Sunday.
The MoDem Romain Daubié will present a text at the end of the week to facilitate the transformation of offices into housing.
Some executives from the Renaissance group regret that the housing subject is addressed in “lots of small texts”, rather than a larger bill.
“We need to coordinate better,” pleads an elected official.
A “hardware error”
But MPs are already struggling to bring the Airbnb bill to fruition, which was first put on the agenda in the spring before being postponed indefinitely.
This fall, during the examination of the 2024 budget, a new standoff took place over the tax loophole for furnished tourist accommodation.
With its series of 49.3 to pass the finance bill without a vote, the government had mistakenly allowed the reduction of the tax reduction to 30%, stronger than what it wanted.
A “material error”, admitted a government source, explaining that the provision was “not intended to apply”.
The 2024 budget provides for a reduction in the reduction to 50% in tense areas, considered insufficient even by certain majority deputies.
The text on Airbnb type accommodation is included during an “Assembly week”, devoted to parliamentary initiative texts.
A series of other legislative proposals are on the program, one of which intends to create a specific “road homicide”, with aggravating circumstances.
At the end of the week, a text is also expected from the Senate after the McKinsey affair and which aims to better regulate the State's use of private consulting firms.