VAT Reclaim on New Build Ski Property in France

The 20% is a Refund, Not a Discount

A new-build French ski property bought off-plan (a vente en l'état futur d'achèvement, or VEFA) carries 20% Value Added Tax (VAT, known in France as TVA)¹. On a property priced at €1,000,000 including tax (toutes taxes comprises, or TTC), the price before tax (hors taxes, or HT) is around €833,333 and the VAT is around €166,667. That VAT is real money the French state can return to you.

It is not a discount. You pay the full TTC price first, then reclaim the VAT later, and you keep the money only while the property remains in a qualifying commercial short-let activity. The headline saving conceals an active obligation that runs for 20 years.

If you are new to the wider purchase process, our France ski property guide for non-resident buyers covers VEFA, leaseback, and the VAT horizon at an overview level. This article is the deep dive on the reclaim itself.

What Qualifies: The Parahôtellerie Regime

The regime that makes the reclaim possible is parahôtellerie: letting that is treated like hotel activity rather than ordinary residential letting, and is therefore subject to VAT. It is governed by Article 261 D of the General Tax Code (CGI)². Two conditions apply together.

First, guest stays must be 30 nights or fewer, marketed as short-term accommodation. Second, at least three of the following four services must be genuinely available to the guest:

• Breakfast: a real breakfast offer or a structured delivery arrangement, not a kettle and a welcome basket.
• Regular cleaning: housekeeping during the stay, with an exception for short stays noted below.
• Household linen: supplied at the start, with renewal available for longer stays.
• Reception: a means of receiving and informing guests, which need not be a staffed 24-hour desk.

Since Article 84 of the 2024 Finance Law (loi n° 2023-1322)³, the test is whether the guest genuinely has access to these services, not whether they are merely advertised. The earlier tolerance, under which it was enough to propose a service, no longer applies.

A common piece of advice holds that the property simply has to be available to let, not actually rented. That understates the obligation. The activity has to be a real commercial operation with the services effectively provided, and being available is not the same as qualifying.

Before relying on the reclaim, ask for evidence of how the services will actually be delivered: the operator contract or agency mandate, and the breakfast, linen, cleaning and reception or guest-support arrangements.

Qualifying also means ongoing VAT administration. The owner becomes VAT-registered, the rental income carries VAT (charged at the reduced 10% rate on lodging income), and periodic returns and proper records are required, so budget for French accounting and tax support.

A Conseil d'État ruling of 12 November 2025 (N° 498267) then relaxed parts of the doctrine in the owner's favour⁴. For short stays, cleaning and linen provided before arrival can satisfy the requirement. A key box accompanied by a genuine reception or information function, for example live phone or messaging support, does satisfy reception. Only a key box offered with no reception function and no alternative remains non-compliant.

There is no national rule that the property must be available for a set number of weeks to qualify for the VAT. The regime turns on the 30-night cap per stay and the services. Any minimum weeks rule you encounter is a local matter, set by mountain planning law or the commune, not the VAT test.

Two Ways to Run It: Leaseback or Direct Management

Both routes can deliver VAT recovery. The legal test is the same in each case: who bears the operating risk and acts in their own name toward guests.

Under a commercial leaseback, also called a bail commercial or résidence de tourisme arrangement, the operator is the parahôtelier and provides the services. Under direct management, you keep the freehold, remain the parahôtelier, and use a local agency as your agent. The structure has to be a genuine mandate for recovery to hold.

For either route, it is advisable to state the parahôtellerie intention in the notarial purchase deed before works begin, to evidence your intent to be VAT-registered from the outset.

Where an operator is involved, ask for its accounts, the lease terms, the rent basis, the default provisions, and what happens to VAT compliance if the operator stops trading.

How the Reclaim Works and the Cash-Flow Gap

For an off-plan purchase, progressive recovery during construction is routinely available to a registered buyer. Since 1 January 2023, VAT becomes due at each staged payment (appel de fonds), so the input VAT is reclaimed call by call through the CA3 (a monthly or quarterly declaration of VAT due and reclaimed) rather than in one claim at completion. Monthly or quarterly returns recover the VAT sooner and materially shrink the cash-flow gap.

The tax office is held to a maximum legal processing period, and failure to decide within it is treated as an implicit rejection that opens the right to contest⁷.

The cash-flow gap is the practical pain point: you fund the VAT and wait for the refund. Two mitigations exist: in some schemes a developer may offer VAT pre-financing so you pay the HT price from day one, and some buyers borrow against the rebate and repay when it lands. Coordinating that bridging finance alongside the tax filing is where SnowOnly+ support is built to help.

The Eviction Indemnity Trap on Leasebacks

A résidence de tourisme operator has a statutory right to renew its lease. If you refuse renewal to take the property back for private use, you may owe an eviction indemnity (indemnité d'éviction) for the operator's lost business goodwill⁵. Clauses that try to waive this in advance are treated as if they were never written (clause réputée non écrite, Code de commerce L.145-15), because the protection is a matter of public order.

In one reported case, an operator was awarded €85,000 against annual rent of €17,000 (the Dolce Frégate case, Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal). That ratio is an illustration of how large an award can be, not a fixed multiple. A right of retraction (droit de repentir) gives a 15-day window to withdraw a refusal to renew, but the owner then bears the tenant's legal and expert costs.

The 20-Year Clock and the Clawback

The state treats the reclaimed VAT as earned over a 20-year reference period: 1/20th for each full year of compliant operation⁶. Reach year 20 and the VAT is fully earned. Stop before then and part of it has to be repaid.

Selling, converting the property to a private second home, or simply ending the qualifying activity before year 20 triggers an adjustment (régularisation). The amount repaid is the initial VAT multiplied by (20 minus n) divided by 20, where n is the number of full compliant years. Exit after 10 years and you repay 50%. Exit after 9 years and you repay 55%.

There is an escape valve. Under Article 257 bis of the General Tax Code, selling the property as a going concern to a VAT-registered buyer who continues the activity, taking over the lease or scheme, means no adjustment is due. The deed must document the transfer. Without it, the seller is liable for the clawback.

One further downside: the resale market for units already inside such a scheme is thin, which makes a clean exit harder to arrange. Depreciation under the régime réel form of the non-professional furnished letting (LMNP) status is a separate income-tax question to review with a French tax adviser, not an automatic benefit; income tax and capital gains tax sit outside this article and are covered elsewhere.

Next steps. The reclaim works because VAT is charged on the new-build purchase (a property under five years old, typically bought off-plan) and the property is kept in a qualifying parahôtellerie activity. Off-plan is the common route, so it is worth understanding that vehicle in full: see our guide to buying off-plan ski property. If you are weighing how to fund the VAT cash-flow gap, our guide to French mortgages for non-resident buyers covers the lending context.