There’s a moment in almost every foreign property owner's life in France when the romance of a pied-à-terre in Paris, a stone village house in Provence, or an airy apartment in Nice runs headlong into the reality of French administration.

If you own property in France and have never filed a déclaration d'occupation (occupancy declaration), the deadline to do so was July 1^st 2026, even if nothing about your situation has changed recently. If you’ve missed it, the fine is €150 per property.

For anyone who’s just enjoying a holiday home, that's an administrative inconvenience worth sorting out. If you’re relocating to France specifically to launch a business, however, this is a change you need to be aware of. Get the property side wrong, and you could end up complicating the business side in ways that won’t be obvious until you're mid-application.

What’s changing for French property owners?

Since 2023, every property owner in France has had to declare via the Gérer mes biens immobiliers portal to define how each property is occupied: as a main residence, a second home, rented long-term, rented seasonally, vacant, or occupied by someone else. This single declaration is what tells the tax authorities which local taxes apply to you.

The reason it matters more than ever is what’s known as the taxe d'habitation. While this was done away with several years ago, that was only for primary residences. The tax still applies in full to second homes, and in high-demand areas it also often comes with a surcharge, as local authorities use it to push underused housing back onto the rental market.

Meanwhile, the taxe foncière (the tax every owner pays, regardless of how the property is used) hasn't gone anywhere. Based on the valeur locative cadastrale (the property's theoretical rental value), this tax is multiplied by locally-set rates, which is why a similarly sized apartment in Paris, the Dordogne, or Nice can generate very different bills. Nationally, taxe foncière bills are rising by around 0.8% this year in line with inflation, on top of whatever your commune decides to add locally.

Related article: How to pay tax in France for expats and entrepreneurs

Then there are vacant properties. French tax law draws a sharp line between a furnished second home and a genuinely vacant, unfurnished property. While a furnished home counts as a second home regardless of how often it’s occupied, an unfurnished one can fall under separate vacant-housing taxes in high-demand areas. This often means a furnished Paris apartment waiting for your next visit counts as a second home, not a vacant one, which can add up to a hefty tax bill!

Why this impacts business owners

This might not seem too impactful for anyone who owns a business, or is looking to start one. But when you register most company structures in France, you need to provide a registered business address, or what’s known as a siège social. For many first-time founders, this can mean using their French home to avoid the cost of a commercial lease, or paying for a virtual office.

While this is allowed, French rules generally require that address to be your primary residence, not a second home. If you use a property that isn't your declared main residence as your company's registered address, the domiciliation is capped at a maximum of five years rather than being open-ended. Depending on your lease, co-ownership rules, or local urban planning restrictions, it may not be permitted at all, meaning that your choice of address can end up shaping which company formation route is available to you.

For anyone who has owned a French property as a second home, and then decides to relocate and start a business, that can make things tricky. If that property was declared as a second home rather than a main residence, simply moving in and starting to work from it isn't enough. You’ll need an updated occupancy declaration reflecting that it’s your main residence change before it can be used as your business address.

Related article: How To Start a Holiday Cottage or Gîte Business in France

There’s also another law that’s worth knowing about. France's real estate wealth tax (the Impôt sur la Fortune Immobilière (IFI)) applies to net property wealth above €1.3 million. However, real estate genuinely used for a professional activity can, in some circumstances, qualify for full or partial exemption. If you’re operating a business from within your home, such as a bed and breakfast, this could expose you to the wealth tax. Lawmakers are actively debating whether to broaden IFI into a wider ‘unproductive wealth’ tax in the 2026 budget, making accurate classification even more important.

Practical steps before registering a company in France

If you're an expat who already owns property in France, and is now planning to form a company, it's worth working through a short checklist before you start the formation process:

1. Log into your impots.gouv.fr account and check the Biens immobiliers section to confirm how each property is currently classified (main residence, second home, rented, or vacant).
2. Update the declaration if your circumstances have changed.
3. Check your lease, co-ownership rules (règlement de copropriété), or local planning restrictions before assuming you can register a company at that address.
4. Decide whether home domiciliation is the right choice, or whether a commercial lease is more appropriate.
5. Organise all of your property documentation, as any inconsistencies between your tax file and your company registration file will slow things down.

None of this needs to be complicated, but it does need to be sequenced correctly. While property tax status and company registration are handled by different parts of the French administration, a slowdown in one process can impact the others. Sorting out your occupancy declaration before filing for company formation might end up saving you weeks of back-and-forth—and avoid that particularly French experience of having to wade through bureaucracy to sort out a mismatch in paperwork.

If you're weighing up whether to form your company at your French home address or go the commercial route, we can help. We’ve been guiding expats and entrepreneurs through the French formation process for more than 15 years, and can help you to navigate property and company law. To learn more, take a look at our article How to Start a Business in France in 8 Steps, visit our French company formation page, or get in touch with us today.