Lay My Hat

I do not charge my guests taxe de sejour. I only have English guests and I do not see the necessity of adding a piddling little daily tax to their final bill. I just declare the number of my guests online and pay over the amounts. I'm concerned to see that OD have taken it upon themselves in a number of major conurbations to start collecting TdS directly from guests starting May 1st "making it easier for owners to comply with local laws".

Are they being required to do this by the French govt? Surely it's not something they'll be doing as a "favour to owners"? And will they be charging a handling charge on top? For the moment this will not affect us but I'd be interested to hear from anyone who will be affected and what your views are on this.

That's interesting SPJ, I haven't heard of that but you have always been able to add a local tax in OD, I have always wondered how they would pay it back to the owners. We do that same as you, do not charge separately but just take it out of our charges, at 50¢ per night did not think it worth the hassle.

And with OD apparent knowledge of geography (poor) how are they going to transfer the funds to the local community ?
I think the French government would have a fit about an American corporation acting as their tax collector.

Airbnb already do it. The lady at the Mairie told me when I went to pay mine this December so I guess there has been some liaising at least.
I imagine it's in order to avoid possible legal action over taxes being avoided.

For myself I don't mind too much as the system here manages to be both fiddly in the extreme and also administered with a lot of laxity, so if HA want to deal with it it's fine with me. Your mileage may well vary of course! No doubt they will find some way to bugger it up though.

Interesting. I've just gone onto OD/HA help pages and apparently they've being doing this in Paris since August 2017 and many major cities they've been rolling out since January this year. Maybe their email warning of this only goes out when they think you may be affected. Bordeaux (our nearest large city) is on the latest list, though we're not within their jurisdiction.
Just feels like yet another thing where I am losing control of my own business!
Be interested to know if anyone's already under the system and if it's working ok.
Ours is incredibly easy / efficient Martha - all done online and with the option to "close off" several months and not get reminder emails out of season. So if OD is collecting my tax for me, will that show as being paid against my online account I wonder?
Not sure the French govt will have a fit bornintheuk. Govts like having other organisations collect their money for them. Not least, I expect they will see the amounts collected go up. I have French friends who openly admit they only declare about 1/2 their occupancy rate at the moment.

I wonder how they know what rate applies to a particular property in a particular commune? The rates vary from area to area, and according to 'classement' of the accommodation.
Unless the owner tells them what rates to apply how can they do it ?

Circé wrote:I wonder how they know what rate applies to a particular property in a particular commune? The rates vary from area to area, and according to 'classement' of the accommodation.
Unless the owner tells them what rates to apply how can they do it ?

That was my immediate thought! B.com tell the clients that they will pay so much on top of our rental fee, but it's usually wrong! I wouldn't want them collecting it for me; they'd probably charge commission on that too!

Tournesol wrote:

Circé wrote:I wonder how they know what rate applies to a particular property in a particular commune? The rates vary from area to area, and according to 'classement' of the accommodation.
Unless the owner tells them what rates to apply how can they do it ?

That was my immediate thought! B.com tell the clients that they will pay so much on top of our rental fee, but it's usually wrong! I wouldn't want them collecting it for me; they'd probably charge commission on that too!

That's what concerns me, which is why it would be good to hear from someone who's already had experience of this.

What about areas where no taxe de séjour is payable?

Apparently on ABB you add the details somewhere into your dashboard. Not sure where as our commune doesn't charge it. I would assume OD would do something similar ... or there again we are talking OD so who knows.