French Property Taxes for Non-Resident Ski Home Owners

The three taxes you pay to hold a French ski home

Owning a French ski property carries three recurring taxes each year, before any rental income, capital gains or succession question arises. One is for owning the bricks: taxe foncière. One is for keeping the property as a second home: taxe d'habitation sur les résidences secondaires (THRS), often surcharged in Alpine resorts. One is a wealth tax that applies once the value is high enough: the impôt sur la fortune immobilière (IFI).

This article covers the annual cost of holding the property. If you are new to the wider tax position on an overseas ski home, our guide to tax basics for overseas ski property owners covers rental income tax, capital gains on sale and double-taxation treaties, which sit outside this article's scope.

Each tax is assessed on your position on 1 January: who owns the property, how it is occupied, and what it is worth. The figures and rules below reflect the position as of 2026 and are intended as orientation, not a substitute for professional advice.

Taxe foncière: the tax for owning the property

Taxe foncière is the annual local tax on whoever owns the property on 1 January of the tax year.¹ It is payable whether the property is occupied, vacant or let. The base is the valeur locative cadastrale (VLC, the cadastral rental value), a theoretical annual rent set by the tax authority rather than the market rent.

For built property the net taxable base is the VLC reduced by a flat 50% abatement (abattement forfaitaire), which accounts for theoretical owner costs such as management, insurance and upkeep.¹ The final bill is that net base multiplied by the rates voted by the commune and intercommunalité. Because rates are set locally, there is no useful national average bill: the only reliable method is to check the specific commune.

The bill also carries ancillary lines. The taxe d'enlèvement des ordures ménagères (TEOM, the household waste charge) is payable even if you use the flat for only a few weeks each winter, and a landlord letting the property can in most cases recover the TEOM portion from a tenant. The taxe pour la gestion des milieux aquatiques et la prévention des inondations (GEMAPI, a flood-prevention surtax) may also appear as a small additional local line; check the commune notice.

A new build, including an off-plan (vente en l'état futur d'achèvement, VEFA) purchase, can qualify for a two-year exemption from taxe foncière after completion. This is not automatically a full exemption: the commune or intercommunalité can suppress it or reduce it to a partial exemption. Check the exact local policy before relying on it.

Notices are typically issued in early autumn, around September, with an online payment deadline near 20 October. Bills over €300 must be paid electronically, and non-residents can opt for an annual payment or a ten-month direct debit.

Taxe d'habitation on second homes (THRS): the tax most buyers think was abolished

Taxe d'habitation sur les résidences secondaires (THRS) is the tax most overseas buyers assume no longer exists. The reform that abolished taxe d'habitation removed it for principal residences only.

Liability falls on whoever has use of the furnished second home and its dependencies on 1 January. The base is the same VLC used for taxe foncière, but with one important difference: there is no abatement at all.⁴ THRS is computed on the full gross VLC, so the same property is taxed on a larger base for THRS than for taxe foncière.

The scope extends to non-adjoining dependencies such as a private parking bay, a garage or a ski locker, even where unheated or unfurnished. A property left genuinely empty and unfurnished is outside THRS, though depending on zoning it may instead face the taxe sur les logements vacants (the tax on vacant dwellings). Notices typically issue in November, with payment due by around 15 December.

The second-home surcharge (majoration): up to 60% extra in Alpine resorts

On top of THRS, eligible communes can vote a surcharge known as the majoration, under Article 1407 ter of the Code général des impôts. The surcharge ranges from 5% to 60% and applies to the communal share of the tax.⁴ It is available to communes in zones tendues, areas with a marked imbalance between housing supply and demand and a high concentration of second homes.

Adoption is widespread and concentrated in the mountains. In 2025, of 3,690 eligible communes, 1,628 applied a majoration (44.1%, up from 39.5% in 2024), and around 657 of those, roughly 40%, voted the maximum of 60%.⁵ The national average majoration was 41.4%. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the main French Alps region, had the most communes applying it at 339, ahead of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur at 327.

Eligibility expanded sharply toward mountain and tourist hubs. In the Alps the eligible communes include 127 in Savoie, 108 in Haute-Savoie, 83 in Hautes-Alpes and 60 in Isère.¹⁰ Eligibility is the right to vote the surcharge, not the rate itself, so an eligible commune may apply nothing.

The driver is budgetary. After the abolition for main homes reduced municipal income, the surcharge is a restorative tool, and some mayors also use it to push "cold beds" (lits froids, second homes left empty most of the year) back into the local rental market. According to the official DGFiP/DGCL local-finances bulletin, municipal revenue from the surcharge reached €436 million in 2024, up 52% on 2023.⁹

No official current grid of per-resort rates exists. With around 657 communes already at the 60% maximum and a national average of 41.4%, Alpine resort communes commonly sit at the higher end of the 5% to 60% range, but the rate is set commune by commune and can change each year. The reliable approach is to check the live rate for the exact commune using the official local-tax comparison tool.⁶

Staying compliant: the occupancy declaration and the €150 fine

Owners of French property, including non-residents, must declare each property's occupancy status, main home, second home, let or vacant, through the "Gérer mes biens immobiliers" (GMBI, "Manage my properties") service on the tax portal. Once filed, the declaration only needs updating when the occupancy status changes.

THRS has only narrow exemptions, granted on application to the local tax office. They cover cases such as a second lodging required for work, certain cases where the owner has moved into long-term care, a property that is structurally uninhabitable or under renovation exceeding 25% of its value, and certain classified tourist lets in rural revitalisation zones. These are exceptions rather than the norm, and most overseas owners will not qualify; confirm any claim with your tax office.

IFI: the wealth tax that catches higher-value chalets

The impôt sur la fortune immobilière (IFI) is a wealth tax on real estate, which replaced the old impôt de solidarité sur la fortune (ISF) in 2018. It taxes property only: liquid assets, equities, bank deposits and similar holdings are excluded. A non-resident is taxed solely on French-situated real estate, including French property held indirectly through company shares such as a société civile immobilière (SCI, a French property-holding company), to the extent of the underlying French property value.⁸

The 2026 scale is unchanged from 2025 and is marginal, so each band applies only to the portion of value that falls within it.

A décote smooths the cliff for estates between €1.3 million and €1.4 million. It is calculated as €17,500 minus 1.25% of net taxable wealth, then deducted from the raw liability.⁸

Take a net taxable estate of €1,350,000. The first €500,000 above the €800,000 entry point is taxed at 0.50% (€2,500), and the remaining €50,000 above €1,300,000 at 0.70% (€350), giving a raw liability of €2,850. The décote is €17,500 minus 1.25% of €1,350,000 (€16,875), which is €625. The net IFI is therefore €2,850 minus €625, or €2,225.

For British buyers, many non-real-estate assets sit outside IFI and do not count toward the €1.3 million threshold. Pensions, wrappers and assurance-vie holdings should be checked with a tax adviser. Valuations are self-assessed, so the position should be confirmed before filing.

Managing the IFI base: debt, mortgages and SCI

Because IFI is charged on net value, debt that genuinely relates to the French property can reduce the base. To be deductible, a debt must exist on 1 January and be directly linked to the property. Deductible items typically include a bank mortgage registered against the French property, outstanding building or maintenance invoices, the taxe foncière itself, and the theoretical IFI liability.

Several common debts are not deductible. These include taxe d'habitation, income taxes and social charges, a mortgage secured on UK or other foreign assets unless it is formally registered against the French property, and family or shareholder loans that lack arm's-length commercial terms. A registered French mortgage can be relevant to the IFI base, but deductibility depends on how the debt is secured and documented; our guide to French mortgages for non-resident buyers covers how these are arranged.

Interest-only (in fine) loans face a specific restriction. For IFI, the deductible amount is amortised straight-line over the term, so on a €1 million ten-year in fine loan the full €1 million is deductible in year one, around €600,000 in year five, and nil in year ten, even though no capital has been repaid. A large-estate cap also applies: where gross taxable real estate exceeds €5 million and total debt exceeds 60% of that value, the portion of debt above 60% is deductible at only 50%.

Holding through an SCI affects the IFI position too. An SCI may affect valuation, but any discount should be adviser-led, evidenced and reviewed before completion, and a shareholder loan from the buyer or family to the SCI (a compte courant d'associé) is not deductible for IFI. The succession and forced-heirship uses of an SCI sit outside this article; our guide to inheritance tax and succession planning for ski property buyers covers those, and given the rule-bound nature of deductibility the structure should be reviewed with a notaire or tax adviser before completion.

The non-resident's tax year: key dates

The three taxes follow a predictable annual rhythm, all anchored to a 1 January snapshot, though the trigger differs: ownership for taxe foncière, use or occupancy for THRS, and net French real-estate value for IFI. The pattern below reflects the typical calendar; confirm the exact dates each year.

Next Steps

These recurring taxes are only part of the cost of ownership. Our guide to the ski property buying costs that catch buyers out sets the annual holding taxes alongside the one-off completion costs many buyers overlook. For the wider picture on buying in France, see our France ski property guide for non-resident buyers.