I want to let my second home. Where there's letting, there's income. And where there's income, there's tax. So my first question is simple:
How much do I actually keep, once the tax is paid?
The simplest option is the micro-BIC. Take the classic case of a furnished residential letting, which gets a flat allowance of 50 %: the tax office assumes only half of my rent is taxable.
I collect €10,000 in rent. So I declare €5,000. At a 41 % marginal rate, that's about €2,050 in tax. Simple. I have almost nothing to do.
The real-costs regimeAnd here, the maths change completely.
No more flat allowance : I deduct my actual letting costs. Property tax (taxe foncière), water and electricity, furnishings, agency or booking-platform commissions, loan interest, loan insurance…
In my case, that's already €8,000. Of my €10,000 in receipts, only €2,000 is left to account for.
DepreciationThen I discover depreciation.
This is where it gets really interesting. I can, for instance, depreciate part of my furniture. My sofa cost €1,500, my bed €1,000, my white goods €1,300. That's €3,800.
I obviously won't deduct the €3,800 in one go : I spread the cost over several years. Over about seven years, that's roughly €540 a year.
My result now drops to around €1,460. And I haven't used the regime's full potential yet.
Depreciating the buildingI discover I can also depreciate the property itself.
In my case, that's about €4,200 of building depreciation available this year. I could wipe out my taxable result entirely and pay no tax on this activity this year. And if I don't use it all ? It's not lost : the unused part carries forward to later years.
Wonderful. But… should I really try to pay nothing?
The real question (2025 Finance Act)Since the 2025 Finance Act, it's no longer free.
The building depreciation I deduct now reduces the acquisition price used to compute the capital gain when I sell. In other words, using more depreciation today can have a consequence when I sell tomorrow.
So the question is no longer « how do I pay nothing this year? ». It becomes :
Which level of depreciation is best for me?
Do I prefer to pay a little more tax today, or accept potentially heavier tax on the sale?
That's exactly where LMNPilot earns its place. It doesn't just try to show zero in the tax box. It lets me compare scenarios and see the consequences of my choices today — but also tomorrow.
The tax thresholdThe same logic can even decide whether I let out an extra week.
Last year, at Christmas, I let my flat for €2,000 to a family of skiers. They loved their week. I loved it a little less : my cleaner was on holiday, and I drove two 200 km round trips to get the flat back in order. And above all, this let pushed me over my tax threshold.
…before even counting the cleaning and my 400 km of driving.
With LMNPilot, I could have known this before accepting the booking. I could have asked « if I let this week, what does it really earn me? » and compared it with « what if I keep the flat for us? ».
Maybe I'd have turned the booking down. The guests would have found another flat. And my kids would have had stars in their eyes. ✨
Keeping the booksRight… but who's going to do all this work?
That's ultimately the main reason many owners stay on micro-BIC. The real regime can be very worthwhile, but it takes more work : keeping receipts, tracking purchases and fixed assets, managing depreciation and carry-forwards, recording expenses, and filing a tax return each year.
Many owners hand it to an accountant, for several hundred euros a year.
And there's a detail I haven't confessed yet : I'm rather the messy type. I pile up my receipts telling myself « I'll sort them later ». And I know full well that come spring, I'll have lost half of them — and spend evenings digging through my emails and drawers to find one invoice.
With LMNPilot I do it differently : I scan the receipt straight away, on my way out of the shop. The app reads it, pulls out the amount, date and category, and records it — the receipt stays attached to the expense. No more year-end sorting.
That's exactly what LMNPilot sets out to simplify. At every step, the same principle :
- I receive an invoice and photograph it with my phone.
- LMNPilot recognises it and understands what I bought.
- It categorises it and attaches it to my file.
- It stores it in my document vault.
- It posts it to my accounts.
- And at year-end, it's already in my tax return.
I no longer do my own accounting : I provide the documents, LMNPilot does the work.
At year-end, my file is ready :
- 2031 income-tax return
- 2033 schedules
- FEC accounting file
- Receipts in the vault
The most autonomous owners file it themselves. The others share temporary access with their accountant, who checks the file and files the return. The goal isn't to replace the accountant at all costs : it's to make sure that, if I want to manage my LMNP myself, I finally can — without having to become an accountant.
A few questions I asked myself
Micro-BIC or the real-costs regime: how do I choose?
Micro-BIC applies a flat allowance (often 50 % for a furnished residential letting). The real regime deducts your actual costs and depreciation. As soon as your costs exceed the allowance — common when you have a mortgage — the real regime is almost always more favourable.
What is my "threshold"?
It's the level of rent below which your taxable result stays at zero : the sum of your deductible costs and your available depreciation. Below it, no tax on this income ; above it, each euro of rent is added to your taxable income.
Is land depreciable?
No : land is treated as non-wasting. Only the building depreciates, along with furniture, works and notary fees. The land share depends on location — roughly 5 % in rural areas up to 40 % in a large city.
Does the 2025 Finance Act kill the interest of the real regime?
No, it nuances it. The building depreciation you deduct is added back when computing the capital gain on sale. Depreciation stays very attractive for a long hold ; for a near-term sale, the calculation is worth doing precisely.
Do I have to use an accountant on the real regime?
Legally, no. But the real regime requires proper bookkeeping. With a tool that prepares the complete file (2031 return, 2033 schedules, FEC file, receipts), you can do it yourself — or significantly reduce your accountant's fees.