Here is the tax benefit of knowing when you have a garden. Hiring a person to do minor maintenance work at your main or secondary residence gives you access to the tax benefit associated with employing an employee at home. This system allows you to deduct 50% of the costs incurred from income tax.
What gardening jobs are affected?
Eligible gardening works include location Garden maintenance includes mowing the lawn, clearing bushes, pruning, maintaining flower beds, watering plants and applying fertilizers by hand, collecting leaves and small uprooting of plants, trimming bushes and hedges or even maintaining swimming pools… Creative work, however, is not affected by the tax discount. Not even building a fence.
This tax benefit is open to all people with tax residence in France, whether they are employed, unemployed or retired, explains the website of the Ministry of the Economy. The intervention of an employee at home can concern the main or secondary residence. You must report the amount of expenses when you complete your annual income tax return, after deducting any help received for the employee’s employment at home. “Remember to keep all receipts of expenses in case the tax authorities ask you to prove that you have actually used home employment,” advises the government’s website.
Know the ceiling
If the amount of the tax credit is higher than the amount of income tax, the tax administrator will refund the difference. Note that for minor gardening work, this tax credit is limited to €5,000 of annual household expenditure.
Finally, from 2022, individuals can take advantage of an immediate advance tax credit, allowing them to avoid carrying forward costs. This service is offered by Urssaf. The employee must first register to benefit from this. It allows you to pay only 50% of the amounts.