Must I declare an en-suite shower room to French tax authorities?

Reader Question: I partitioned part of a bedroom to make an en-suite shower room. It can be accessed only via the bedroom. Does it count as a separate room on the property declaration form or is it simply recorded as a bedroom?

It will count as a separate room in the declaration.

For tax purposes, rooms are defined as enclosed spaces with specific uses.

In this case, the enclosed space is used as a salle de douche, while the rest of the room is a chambre, and your declaration should reflect that.

Changing it should be easy to do.

Changes to French property use can be made online

The personal section of the impots.gouv.fr website has a dedicated email service, votre messagerie sécurisée, with a dropdown menu of suggested titles.

This includes J’ai une question sur le descriptif de mon bien immobilier (‘I have a question about how my property is described’).

Read more: How do I contact tax officials when I move to France?

Explain there that you have made a shower room and need to make a change.

You should receive a reply with details of how to do so.

Visiting your local tax office in person is an alternative, but do not be disappointed if your friendly tax officer, who helps with income tax declarations and questions, sends you off to a larger tax office, probably in a town or city with a prefecture.

Property taxes are a specialist subject for tax officers and not all are qualified to give advice, especially with new measures such as the déclaration des biens immobiliers.

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