How to Declare a Flatshare for Taxes?

Do you and your roommates have to pay local taxes? How should the amount be split between roommates? What steps need to be taken regarding taxes?

Studapart will help guide you through it!

Do I Have to Declare My Flatshare for Taxes?

Living in a flatshare does not require an additional declaration to taxes compared to a typical rental.

For taxes, it's important to know your changes in situations that can affect the amount of your tax: your address is part of this (for calculating local taxes).

Whether you live alone, in a flatshare or cohabitating, it is therefore important that you communicate your new address to the tax administration.

This process is individual for each roommate.

What are the Steps to Declare a Flatshare for Taxes?

To declare a change of address, you must go to your personal space on the tax website:

You can directly enter your new address, no proof will be required.
If you wish, you can double this process with a letter or email to the SIP (tax office for individuals) to which you belong.

Good to know : your annual tax return is also a way to communicate your address and situation to the tax authorities. You can indicate your address on January 1st of the current year, as well as your situation: owner, tenant, roommate or hosted for free.

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Flatshare : which taxes are you concerned about?

As a roommate of an apartment, you may be liable for certain local taxes. Yes, but which ones?

Tax on the dwelling

The housing tax was the main tax due by members of a flatshare. Since January 2023, this tax has been abolished on the main residences of all individuals.

The gradual abolition of the housing tax began in 2018. It still exists for secondary residences and vacant properties.

So you're no longer liable for the housing tax in a flatshare! (as long as the flat is your main residence)

Note: the TV license fee (contribution to public audiovisual) has also been abolished for all French people. This tax no longer exists since 2022.

Flatshare and tax or household waste removal fee

Another local tax that may affect you if you live in a shared house is the garbage collection fee.

This tax, which is used to finance the collection of household waste, is not quite the same depending on the municipalities.

In some municipalities, the garbage collection fee (TEOM) applies: it is a component of the property tax and, logically, at the expense of the owner. That being said, the owner can pass on its amount in the rental charges of the shared house (excluding management fees). Most of the time, the amount of TEOM is therefore included in the flat rate charge for shared housing. If you are curious, you can ask your landlord how much it was last year, this will give you an order of magnitude. In any case, the amount of the flat rate must be specified in the lease for shared housing, and the owner cannot ask you for supplementary or subsequent regularization.
In other municipalities, it is a garbage collection fee (REOM): this fee is due by those who live in housing, so by roommates. Generally speaking, its amount includes a fixed part per dwelling and a variable part that depends on the volume of waste removed or number of people in the household for example.

But in my municipality, is it the tax or the fee that applies? The answer to this question is usually found on the website of your town hall. If not, contact your town hall or your landlord directly for more information.

We explain everything about the rental charges in our article (to what expenses do they correspond? What are their payment terms? Etc.).

How are taxes calculated in a flatshare?

Each housing is taxed only once, regardless of the number of tenants. There will be only one tax return, which will be in one name.

This does not mean that this person is the only one who has the responsibility to pay this tax:

On local taxes that have to be paid by flatmates or that are passed on to them by the landlord, it is up to the flatmate group to agree on a distribution key for who will pay what.
You can choose to divide the amount equally between each of the flatmates, or take into account their fiscal income for example. If a flatmate joined the housing in the middle of the year, you can also apply a pro-rate depending on their arrival date in the flat-sharing.
Flatmates are jointly liable for payment of any local taxes: this means that tax authorities can request full payment from any one of the flatmates.

How to find a flatmate? Here are our tips!