I saw a March 2004 webblog from www.FranceVoila.com mentioning an February 2004 initiative by the French Prime minister recommending to parliament a law imposing a tax of 15% (of rental value) on apartments left empty by the owners. The stated objective was to make more living space available for French citizens (by forcing property owners to rent out their apartments year-round). If the owner cannot rent, then he will probably sell just to avoid paying the 15% tax. The plan was to have the law go into effect in 2005. No one had a lot of detail.
I have seen no coherent answers about the implication of this simple announcement - does it mean that holiday properties will be considered "empty" unless they are declared as having a rental income and therefore paying taxes anyway? Does it mean that an owner who only uses the property for a few months or weeks each year will have to pay an additional "empty property tax" on the remaining months?
If anyone has some knowledge regarding this proposal (implications mentioned above) and its current status (dead, delayed, pending, scheduled to go into effect?) please let us know.
Thanks, Max
