When a company’s website and Facebook page support its tax reassessment
A company that operated a former farmhouse underwent a tax audit, following whichadministration issued a tax assessment. The authorities determined that the company’s income derived partly from rental revenue for event spaces and partly from the rental of lodging, which was considered a secondary activity.
According toadministration, the company was therefore not entitled to apply the 10% VAT rate, which was limited to the provision of housing.
The tax assessment was challenged all the way up to the Administrative Court of Appeals.
In order to reject the company’s argument that it merely rents out a large-capacity residential guesthouse, the Court notes that the company’s website states that it “offers a unique service combining a fully equipped reception hall capable of seating up to two hundred people with an ‘accommodation solution’ for more than seventy people.”
In addition, the company’s manager had stated on Facebook that he had rented the venue for a seminar without providing accommodations.
To confirm that the accommodation services are merely ancillary to the rental of the reception spaces, the Court will rely on posts from the Facebook page and the website.
These documents indicated that the property leased by the company was intended for hosting events and that an "accommodationsolution" was offered. The company's marketing materials therefore "focused on reception spaces." It also notes that the company's revenue came primarily from weddings and that the reception hall could accommodate more people than the accommodation facilities.
The Court therefore finds that the provision of lodging was merely incidental to the business of renting out reception spaces and that the 20% VAT rate should apply to all of the company's revenue.
CAA Lyon, April 16, 2026, No. 25LY01099
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