User:Yambry

Marchand de Bien

The ‘Marchand de Bien’, (Merchant of Property), is a trading company or an individual who buys property for resale and, as such, is subject to a special tax regime. The merchant is a professional of real estate whose activity consists of buying property, goodwill or shares of companies, with the express intention of reselling and making a profit. Unlike a normal French estate agent, the Merchant of Property can only sell property that the merchant actually owns, but does not require a licence to do this, a property sale is simply the selling of the merchants stock. To sell property of any description for a third party, and accept a fee for doing so, in the way an estate agent would, necessitates the merchant to hold a ‘Carte Professionnelle’ this is required for compliance with the French Law Hoguet. Failure to comply will result in a large fine for the first offence, and prison thereafter.

Taxation of Capital Gains.

There is no taxation of capital gains for professional traders of property. They fall under the regime of Trade and Industry Profits (BIC). According to Article 35-I-1 of the French General Tax Code, are subject to income tax in the category of BIC, on the profits made by the merchant of property. The taxable income is equal to the difference between the sale price of buildings, plus charges, and their cost. If the activity of merchant of property is conducted through a company, it will have a commercial character and will be subject to corporate tax.

Merchant Specific TVA.

With regard to TVA, the special regime for merchants of property lies in the fact that the tax base of TVA is the gross margin rather than the selling price of the property. This margin is the difference between, on the one hand, the selling price of the property and on the other hand, money that the seller paid, in any capacity whatsoever, for the acquisition of the property, using either nominal value of shares received in return for contributions in made in kind. The merchant of property is exempt from TVA on the purchase price, although it is normal for the merchant to pay the TVA, and then reclaim the amount within next TVA year quarter. It is a regime for allowing the merchant to acquire the property at a preferential rate if it meets the obligations of merchants and property, if it also takes in the act of acquisition commitment to resell within four years.

Business Tax.

The merchant of goods is also subject to business tax under the conditions of law.

Stephen Woods-Shepherd (talk) 13:41, 8 August 2008 (UTC)