Booking.com fined for unpaid taxes

Booking.com has been ordered to pay fines related to unpaid tourism taxes in the Nancy metropolitan area, continuing a series of legal setbacks for the company. This follows a previous fine of €574,000 paid to the Oléron local authority in 2023 for similar issues.

Airbnb's tax collection issues

Airbnb has also faced scrutiny over its handling of tourism taxes. In 2019, the company mistakenly collected taxes on children, who are typically exempt, due to a computer system error. More recently, in July 2026, Airbnb altered its payment structure, reducing the amounts sent to local authorities and temporarily increasing its own cash flow.

French government's tourism tax reform

The French government is preparing a reform of the tourism tax, which has not been universally welcomed. Local authorities and professionals oppose centralizing tax collection through the state's Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (DGFiP), ending the allocation of funds to the tourism sector, and implementing a proportional rate.

New system for tax collection

An experimental system called FARITAS (Facilitate Tax and Tourism Tax Collection) has been introduced, allowing platforms to submit a single declaration every semester to the tax authorities, covering the entire national territory. This aims to avoid the need for multiple non-standardized forms for each local authority.

Debate over tax responsibility

There is debate over whether the responsibility for collecting the tax should return to the hosts, as it was before 2019. New tools for recording non-professional short-term rentals, under the Le Meur law and the EU regulation, could make this more manageable, but the burden would shift back to local authorities, which have delegated this task due to lack of resources.

Challenges in tax enforcement

The issue of "administrative phobia" is highlighted, with concerns that the current system allows for inconsistent enforcement of tax collection practices. The resolution of these issues is seen as requiring legislative action and cooperation across the entire chain.