France · Regulations

Tourist tax: who collects it and how

You don't pay it — you collect it from your guests and remit it to your municipality. The hard part is knowing how much, on what basis, and what booking platforms already handle for you.

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The principle: you collect it, you don't owe it

The tourist tax is owed by the traveller staying with you. Your role is to collect it, then remit it to your municipality's treasury on the dates set by the municipal council or the inter-municipal body. The framework sits in articles L2333-26 to L2333-47 of the French local authorities code.

It applies to furnished tourist rentals just as it does to hotels, guest rooms, campsites and holiday residences.

First things first — the tax only exists where your municipality has introduced it, and the rate is theirs to set. Before any calculation, check your local situation on the official simulator or with your town hall.

Two regimes, two ways of counting

Your municipality picks one of the two, and the choice is not yours.

The real regime The tax is due per person and per night. You multiply the applicable rate by the number of nights and by the number of non-exempt people. It is the most common regime for furnished rentals.
The flat-rate regime The tax depends on the property's capacity, not on how many people actually stayed. You therefore pay even on a partly occupied property.

The case of unclassified rentals

If your property is unclassified — or awaiting classification — the rate is not read from a fixed scale: it is expressed as a percentage of the nightly price per person, between 1% and 5% depending on the municipality's decision, capped at the highest rate it has adopted.

In Paris, for instance, the rate for unclassified accommodation is 5%, capped at €15.93 for 2026. That figure applies to Paris and nowhere else — which is precisely why you must check municipality by municipality.

Additional departmental or regional surcharges sometimes apply. In the Île-de-France region, a substantial surcharge is added on top of the base rate.

Who is exempt

Four categories of people do not pay the tax: minors under 18, seasonal workers employed in the municipality, people in emergency or temporary rehousing, and people domiciled in the municipality.

The first category is by far the most common, and it is where calculation errors creep in: a family of four with two children pays for two people only. That assumes you know everyone's age — a detail better collected before arrival than guessed afterwards.

What platforms already do for you

Since 1 January 2019, digital operators that take payment on your behalf — Airbnb, Booking, Abritel — collect the tourist tax on a real basis and remit it directly, for non-professional hosts. Since June 2024, those platforms may also file a single nationwide return rather than one per municipality.

The catch — this automatic collection only covers bookings made and paid through the platform. For a direct booking, an extended stay settled in person, or any off-platform payment, collecting and remitting remain entirely yours.

This is why, in every case, you need to know how many people stayed, for how many nights, and which of them were exempt.

Where CheckInn helps — and where it doesn't

Let's be clear: CheckInn does not calculate your tourist tax, does not collect it and does not file it. It is not accounting software.

What it does keep, for every stay, are the elements that make up the tax base: arrival and departure dates, hence the number of nights, the number of declared adults, and each guest's date of birth — which lets you identify exempt minors without having to ask twice.

The day your municipality asks for a summary, you export the period's records as PDF instead of piecing together six months of message threads.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to collect the tax if I only rent through Airbnb?

If the platform takes the payment, it has collected and remitted the tax on your behalf since 1 January 2019. You remain concerned as soon as a booking is made directly or a payment happens off-platform.

How do I find the rate that applies to my property?

It depends on your municipality, the regime it has chosen and your property's classification. The official simulator on service-public.fr gives your municipality's rate; when in doubt, your town hall is the authoritative source.

Do children pay the tourist tax?

No. People under 18 are exempt. It is the most common exemption, and the one that most often skews calculations when guests' ages were never recorded.

My property is unclassified — which rate applies?

A percentage of the nightly price per person, between 1% and 5% depending on your municipality, capped at the highest rate it has adopted. The amount therefore varies with your nightly price, unlike classified properties.

When must I remit the tax to my municipality?

On the dates set by the municipal council or inter-municipal body — they vary from one area to another. Ask your town hall, which will also tell you the summary format they expect.