UK/US rental income
How to declare unfurnished vs furnished rentals
Income is declared in total, per person (or half each for a couple), by country of origin of the income.
For UK income, tax offices accept use of the income from the UK tax year 2024-2025. Add all such income for each spouse, individually.
Income declared in micro boxes should be gross, without expense deductions. This income should be declared along with similar ‘tax credit’ income such as ‘tax credit’ pensions, in Section 6 of the 2047 and in 2042 box 8TK.
Declare unfurnished rental income as revenus fonciers and furnished as locations meublées.
As with tax credit pensions, many tax offices (and the Notes to the 2047 foreign income form) also ask you to declare this income more fully. To do this you should also declare it as follows:
- Unfurnished rental: 2047 section 4 line 40 Revenus fonciers imposables en France, including property address and the country where the income is from (ignore request to fill in 2044 unless rental income is more than €15,000 and/or you are using the réel tax system) then enter on 2042 in section 4, 4BE and 4BK (micro foncier). If the income is more than €15,000, first fill in the separate online or paper form 2044, then carry the profit from this form to the 2042, 4BA and 4BL and to the 2047, section 4.
Furnished rental: Income from locations meublées is defined as ‘Bic’ (a kind of ‘commercial’ income) rather than revenus fonciers (meaning income from land). An issue then arises as the simple micro-Bic is not available for foreign income so officially this should be declared as réel income (including filling out form 2031). In which case you would declare the profit net of expenses at: 2047, section 5 under Bénéfices industrielles et commerciaux and 2042C PRO, box 5EY.
If the furnished rental is on a ‘professional landlord’ basis (see chapter 6, 'How to declare rental income') use 5DF. French tax lawyer Laurent Gravelle states that not completing the complex 2031 (which is aimed at businesses) is acceptable for tax offices if you do not claim amortissement. This, involving sums of money taken off furnished rental income to factor in depreciation (wear and tear) of the property, requires a full accounting process.