Do You Need an Accountant for a Furnished Rental (LMNP) — and What Does It Cost?

Quick answer. Under the micro-BIC regime, a non-professional furnished landlord (LMNP) can do without an accountant: the flat 50% allowance applies automatically, with no bookkeeping. Under the actual-expense regime, the picture changes: you depreciate the property and furniture, deduct real expenses and file a no. 2031 tax return with its 2033 schedules. That is where an accountant adds value, for an indicative annual cost often around EUR 300 to 600 per property (fees are free, higher in the first year). Since the 2025 Finance Act, deducted depreciation is added back when computing the capital gain on sale — a parameter to factor in from the outset.

Long-term furnished rental falls under industrial and commercial profits (BIC), not property income. Two regimes coexist. The micro-BIC applies as long as annual receipts stay below the threshold: EUR 77,700 for 2025 income, raised to EUR 83,600 for 2026 to 2028 income (long-term furnished rental). It grants a flat 50% allowance, with no accounting obligation.

The actual-expense regime applies above that threshold, and by simple election below it. It allows the deduction of real expenses and, crucially, the depreciation of the property (excluding the land share) and the furniture. This regime is what justifies hiring a professional and frames this entire article. If you are starting out, our piece on whether you must obtain a SIRET as an LMNP covers the first formality.

Do not confuse this long-term rental with tourist furnished rental, governed by the "Le Meur" law: a classified tourist rental enjoys a 50% allowance (EUR 83,600 cap), an unclassified one only 30% (EUR 15,000 cap). These are two distinct tax worlds.

Under micro-BIC, the tax authority applies the 50% allowance for you. No return, no balance sheet, no entries: an accountant only provides one-off advice here, not a recurring engagement.

Under the actual regime, the logic flips. You must keep commercial accounts, compute depreciation by the useful life of each component, track any carried-forward loss and file a profit return. The technicality of component-based depreciation and the formalism of the return make support worthwhile. Our dedicated article on the LMNP tax return details the schedules to complete.

The decision rule is simple: if your real expenses plus depreciation exceed 50% of your receipts, the actual regime lowers your tax base — often to zero for several years. This is the typical case of a debt-financed property with high loan interest.

1. Set the opening balance sheet and the depreciable basis. The professional splits the purchase price between the land (non-depreciable) and the building, then breaks the building down into components (structure, roof, fixtures) with their own depreciation periods. Furniture is depreciated separately.
2. Keep the year's accounts. Cash receipts, deductible expenses (loan interest, property tax, insurance, fees, minor works), depreciation charges.
3. Compute the result and manage the loss. The loss from expenses other than depreciation offsets LMNP income over the following ten years; depreciation not deducted in a year (deemed deferred) carries forward without time limit.
4. Prepare the tax return. Profit return no. 2031-SD and its schedules 2033-A (simplified balance sheet), 2033-B (income statement and taxable result), 2033-C (fixed assets and depreciation) and 2033-D.
5. File and report. Electronic filing, then carrying the result to the supplementary income return no. 2042 C-PRO.

This engagement is a standard bookkeeping and review mission adapted to the LMNP format. For a multi-property investor, it fits within an annual accounting support package.

Accountants' fees are set freely (no regulated scale); the ranges below are indicative and vary with the number of properties, the bookkeeping arrangement and the first year (rebuilding the opening balance sheet). For broad framing, see our guide on how much an accountant costs in 2026 and our article on the accountant's fee.

The main gain is not accounting but tax-related: depreciation often neutralises rental income tax for several years. As an illustration, on a property where the building and furniture make up most of the price, the annual depreciation charge can wipe out a large share of the result — with no cash outflow. The accountant's fees, in turn, are a deductible expense of the BIC result.

One point is often misunderstood: the tax reduction for accounting fees and membership of an approved management body (Article 199 quater B of the French Tax Code) no longer exists. It was repealed by the 2025 Finance Act as of 1 January 2025; its last application covered the taxation of 2024 income. So do not count on this benefit to fund your fees.

• Micro-BIC investor below the cap. If your real expenses are low (property paid in cash, few works), micro-BIC and its 50% allowance suffice: an accountant is not needed, apart from initial advice.
• Debt-financed property with high interest. The actual regime almost always wins; support is fully justified.
• Service residences (student, seniors, care home). The accounting remains that of an actual-regime LMNP, but the capital-gain rules differ (see below).
• Holding through a company. An income-tax SCI cannot, in principle, carry on furnished rental without switching to corporate tax: a structure to arbitrate with an accountant specialised in furnished rental (LMNP) or in real-estate accounting (SCI and LMNP).
• Multiple properties or significant activity. Crossing into professional landlord (LMP) status changes the social and capital-gain rules; the arbitrage must be documented.

The most structural change comes from the 2025 Finance Act. Its Article 84 amends Article 150 VB of the Tax Code: for sales from the day after its promulgation (mid-February 2025), the acquisition price used for the capital gain is reduced by the depreciation deducted. In practice, the benefit obtained during ownership is partly "clawed back" on resale. The text provides explicit exclusions: student residences (Articles L. 631-12 and L. 631-13 of the Construction and Housing Code), establishments for the elderly or disabled and service residences (6° and 7° of I of Article L. 312-1 of the Social Action and Families Code), and long-term care facilities. This mechanism does not remove the value of depreciation, but it must be built into your resale horizon.

Other watch-points: do not confuse long-term rental with tourist furnished rental (different caps and allowances); keep accounts from the very first year under the actual regime, otherwise the opening balance sheet is hard to reconstruct; and no longer rely on the Article 199 quater B reduction, now repealed.

Recently, a furnished-rental investor entrusted us with a year-round let flat, debt-financed, that he had been declaring under micro-BIC for three years. The comparative calculation showed that, under the actual regime, depreciation of the property combined with loan interest brought his taxable result to zero for several years, whereas micro-BIC left half the rents taxable. The extra cost of bookkeeping was out of all proportion to the tax saving obtained.

Our conviction, as accountants registered with the Ordre, is that the question is not "accountant or not" but "which regime". Under micro-BIC, support is rarely justified. Under the actual regime, it almost always is as soon as there is a loan or works — both to secure component-based depreciation and to anticipate the resale claw-back introduced by the 2025 Finance Act. It is a costed arbitrage, not a matter of principle.

Hayot Expertise tip. Before choosing, have a side-by-side micro-BIC / actual simulation drawn up over the planned holding period, factoring in depreciation and the new capital-gain rule. If the actual regime is selected, set up the accounts from the first year: the opening balance sheet governs all future depreciation. For a single, debt-free property, micro-BIC often remains the right choice. We frame this arbitrage in an initial discussion.