Professional furnished landlord (LMP): thresholds and contributions 2026

Quick answer. You become a professional furnished landlord (LMP) by operation of law as soon as the household's furnished-rental receipts exceed 23,000 euros per year AND exceed the household's other earned income (Tax Code art. 155, IV). The heaviest consequence is not fiscal but social: the LMP falls under self-employed social contributions (SSI) based on profit, whereas the non-professional landlord (LMNP) only bears 18.6% social levies on furnished income.

Moving from non-professional to professional furnished landlord is not a box you tick, it is a threshold you cross, sometimes without noticing. One extra rental, a spouse's retirement, the end of an employment contract: a single change in the make-up of household income can trigger the switch. And that switch changes everything, especially on social contributions. Understanding the thresholds, the social cost and the trade-offs of the LMP status lets you anticipate rather than suffer a surprise affiliation. Let us review it for 2026, separating what is a stable fiscal rule from what has changed recently.

The LMP status rests on two conditions that must be met at the same time (Tax Code art. 155, IV). Since the Constitutional Council removed the trade-register registration requirement (decision of 8 February 2018), only these two thresholds determine the qualification.

The first condition is that the annual furnished-rental receipts of the whole tax household exceed 23,000 euros, charges and taxes included. What counts is receipts, meaning rents collected and recharged costs, not the profit. The second is that these receipts exceed the household's other earned income subject to income tax: salaries, retirement pensions, and the trading, professional or farming profits of the other household members. If only one of the two conditions is met, you remain a non-professional furnished landlord (LMNP).

This cumulative nature is essential and often misunderstood. A household with high salaries can collect more than 23,000 euros of furnished rents without becoming an LMP, for lack of exceeding its earned income. Conversely, a retiree, a modest single-income household, or an investor who scales back salaried work switches far more easily. The 23,000-euro threshold is only a gateway: it is the comparison with other earned income that decides.

Two clarifications come up often in our discussions. Receipts are compared over the calendar year, and the first year of activity prorates the 23,000 euros. Furthermore, bare-rental income, investment income and dividends are not "earned income": they do not enter the second comparison. For a household whose main income is from assets, the risk of switching to LMP is therefore higher than it looks.

The most striking change of the move to LMP concerns the social-levy mechanism.

Under the non-professional status, furnished-rental income bears social levies at a combined 18.6% (CSG 10.6%, CRDS 0.5% and solidarity levy 7.5%). This rate is not a long-standing figure: it results from the 1.4-point CSG increase introduced by the Social Security financing act for 2026, applicable to income from assets from the taxation of 2025 income onwards. Furnished rents, taxed as trading profits (BIC), are income from assets and are therefore affected: they moved from 17.2% to 18.6%. Watch a common trap: this 18.6% rate is specific to furnished lettings and must not be confused with the 17.2% that still applies to bare lettings (rental income). These levies are collected by the tax authority alongside income tax.

Under LMP, the activity is deemed professional and falls under the self-employed social scheme (SSI): contributions are no longer based on a flat social-levy rate but on the activity's profit, at a far higher level. On top of that comes a minimum flat contribution, owed even in the absence of profit or in a loss-making year, which surprises many investors in the first year. In return, these contributions open social rights, notably pension quarters and basic health cover.

What the move to LMP really costs#

This is the point investors underestimate the most, because it compares two different logics: a levy rate applied to income on one side, social-protection contributions on the other. To set an order of magnitude, take a furnished profit of 50,000 euros once depreciation is largely used up.

• Under LMNP, the net income bears 18.6% social levies, that is around 9,300 euros.
• Under LMP, SSI contributions represent in practice around 35% to 45% of the profit depending on the profile and contribution history, that is a social charge that can land around 17,500 to 22,500 euros a year.

The gap, in this example, can therefore exceed double. These rates are indicative and must be costed precisely case by case: they depend on the base used, on the floors and the minimum contribution, and remain to be checked with the Urssaf for your situation. The counterpoint, which must go on the scale, is that these contributions fund rights (pension, health) and not a mere levy.

The topic also calls for an important nuance. For short-term furnished lettings (tourist accommodation, seasonal rentals), affiliation to the SSI can be triggered on a logic specific to that type of letting, and not only by the LMP qualification in the tax sense. In other words, a seasonal landlord may, in certain cases, fall under social contributions without necessarily being an LMP for tax. The precise affiliation rules for short-term letting are technical and evolving: they should be checked case by case with the Urssaf. This possible split between tax qualification and social affiliation is one of the most misunderstood points on the subject, and one where we see the most errors.

This switch can therefore significantly increase the burden, especially on a high profit after a few years, once the building's depreciation is used up. It is the first point we cost with an investor approaching the thresholds, because it changes the economic balance of the project and the net yield actually received.

The LMP status does not only have drawbacks: it opens advantages that the non-professional status does not, and which can offset the extra social cost.

First advantage, LMP activity deficits are deductible from the household's overall income with no cap, except for the part of the deficit arising from depreciation (which remains carried forward against furnished profits only). For a heavily taxed household carrying out works or bearing high loan interest, this effect can clearly lighten income tax in the early years, whereas the non-professional status only allows the deficit to be offset against furnished income.

Second advantage, disposal gains fall under the professional capital gains regime. They can be exempt under article 151 septies of the Tax Code when the activity has been carried on for at least five years: full exemption if the average receipts of the two preceding calendar years stay under 90,000 euros, and partial sliding exemption between 90,000 and 126,000 euros. This is a major advantage for assets meant to be passed on or sold, a subject we detail in our article on the exemption of professional capital gains 151 septies. Third advantage, often decisive, subject to conditions the assets used for the LMP activity can be exempt from the real-estate wealth tax (IFI) when it is a genuine principal professional activity of the household.

Since 2025, the taxation of non-professional furnished gains has changed and brings the two statuses slightly closer on one specific point.

For disposals made from 15 February 2025, the depreciation deducted during the letting period under the non-professional status is reintegrated into the individual capital gain calculation, which raises the taxable base on resale, excluding eligible service residences (student, senior, care homes). This measure comes from the finance act for 2025 (act no. 2025-127 of 14 February 2025), hence the 15 February 2025 effective date. In practice, the historic advantage of the non-professional status, depreciating the asset each year with no counterpart on exit, is trimmed. The LMP, by contrast, includes depreciation in the professional gain but offers in return the 151 septies exemption. On this specific point, the gap in treatment at disposal has narrowed, which we detail in our comparison non-professional status against the 2026 reform and in our analysis of the new 2026 non-professional rules.

Our view#

The LMP status is neither a trap nor a grail: it is a change in the nature of the activity, which must be prepared. In our files, the number-one watch point remains social contributions, systematically underestimated by investors who reason only in tax terms and compare a social-levy rate to "nothing". The right question is not "LMP or non-professional", but "at what moment, and with which holding structure".

Our method is to project the household's receipts and other income over three to five years to locate the crossing of the thresholds, then to cost the net social cost of the move to LMP against its advantages: deficits deductible from overall income, capital gains exemption in time, and where applicable an IFI exemption. Depending on the profile, three paths emerge: deliberately stay under the threshold, accept the LMP knowingly because the trade-offs prevail, or hold the assets in a suitable structure. The decision is taken before the switch, never on reading the first contribution notice.

A recently retired investor collected 28,000 euros of furnished rents a year, on modest retirement pensions. He believed he was comfortably non-professional, but his receipts exceeded both the 23,000-euro threshold and his other earned income (his pensions): he was an LMP by operation of law, without intending or declaring it. The discovery of the SSI social contributions was a shock, because he had built his net yield on the furnished-rental social levies alone.

The analysis costed the real social surcharge, but also the trade-offs he was unaware of: the ability to offset his deficit (a works programme was planned) against all of his income, and the capital gains exemption in time under 151 septies, his receipts staying under 90,000 euros. Once both sides of the scale were set out, the project was redirected knowingly, with a regularised affiliation, rather than suffered and reassessed later.

In practice: the annual December review#

The right reflex is to run the calculation once a year, before the calendar year closes, and to record it. Here is the sequence we suggest to our investor clients.

• Each December, list the furnished receipts collected by all members of the tax household, including recharged costs.
• Compare this total with the household's other earned income (salaries, pensions, trading, professional, farming profits), not with rental or investment income.
• If both thresholds are crossed, anticipate SSI affiliation and the minimum contribution from the first year, without waiting for the notice.
• Distinguish the short-term letting case, where social affiliation can be triggered on its own logic, to be confirmed with the Urssaf.
• Keep the detail of depreciation taken: it drives the capital gain base on resale, under both the non-professional and the LMP status.
• Have the arbitrage costed before crossing, with a tax-focused chartered accountant, rather than after affiliation.

• The 23,000-euro threshold is calculated on the whole household's receipts, not per property or per partner: both spouses' rentals add up.
• Do not confuse the 18.6% on non-professional furnished income with the 17.2% on bare letting: these are two distinct rates, collected differently.
• The minimum SSI contribution is owed even in a loss: a project in its depreciation phase can show a nil tax result and still pay contributions.
• Tax qualification and social affiliation are not the same: in short-term letting, you can fall under social affiliation while remaining non-professional for tax.
• Reverting to non-professional after a year of LMP is neither automatic nor neutral: the change of status carries consequences on latent gains and depreciation.
• The IFI exemption for the LMP requires a genuine professional activity (receipts, predominance of income, real management): it is not granted simply by being an LMP.
• The thresholds and rates mentioned are those applicable in 2026 and must be re-checked at each finance act, as the matter is regularly adjusted.