Guide
TVA on renovation work in France: 5.5%, 10% or 20%?
Three TVA (the French VAT) rates can apply to home renovation work, and which one lands on your devis depends on the type of work. Your income and residence status play no part. General improvement and repair jobs sit at 10%. Work that improves a property's energy performance drops to 5.5%. New build, extensions, pools and a handful of other categories stay at the standard 20%.
Getting this wrong costs money in both directions. A contractor who bills everything at 20% out of caution overcharges you on work that qualifies for a lower rate. One who applies 5.5% to a job that doesn't meet the conditions leaves you exposed if the tax authority ever checks, because the certification on the devis is signed by the client, not the contractor.
Which renovation works are taxed at 10% in France?
The 10% rate covers work described in the tax code as amélioration (improvement), transformation, aménagement (fitting-out) and entretien (maintenance) on a residential property completed more than two years ago. This is most of what people mean by "renovating a house": repainting, re-tiling, rewiring, plumbing repairs, replacing a kitchen or bathroom, fixing a roof, or repairing a fence or gate.
The rate applies to labour. Equipment and materials the contractor supplies as part of the job are usually covered too, but there's a catch to know before you sign: if you buy an appliance or a major system yourself and simply pay someone to fit it, the equipment is taxed at 20% even if the fitting labour still qualifies for 10%. A contractor supplying and installing on a single invoice avoids that split.
When does the 5.5% energy rate apply instead?
5.5% applies to a specific list of energy-performance work: insulation of walls, roofs and floors, double glazing and insulating shutters, mobile solar protection, ventilation systems including VMC, heating regulation devices, and qualifying heating and hot water equipment such as heat pumps and solar thermal panels. As with the 10% rate, the property has to be more than two years old.
The property has to be more than two years old and you certify that on the devis. There is no main-residence condition and no RGE condition for the rate itself.
Work that's directly tied to a qualifying energy job, such as making good the plaster after insulation is fitted, generally follows the same 5.5% rate as the main job instead of being split out separately.
One equipment category needs a caveat: an air-to-air heat pump (a reversible split or multi-split) only reaches 5.5% if the unit meets a specific technical spec introduced in July 2026. A unit that misses the spec stays on the old split: 20% on the equipment and 10% on the labour. Don't assume every reversible split qualifies. See our cooling hub for which units qualify.
Which jobs stay at 20% (pools, extensions, new build)?
New construction is taxed at the standard rate, and so is an extension that increases a building's surface de plancher (floor area) by more than 10%. A renovation that goes far enough, gutting a property down to its structure and rebuilding most of it, can also tip into the 20% "new build" bracket even without adding a single square metre, though where exactly that line sits is a judgment call best confirmed with your contractor or a tax adviser on a large project.
Two categories catch people by surprise on an otherwise straightforward renovation. Pools are taxed at 20% regardless of how the rest of the project is billed, and most landscaping and garden work falls the same way. If your project pairs house renovation with a new pool or terrace landscaping, expect the devis to show more than one rate.
The same equipment-supplied-separately rule from the 10% section applies here too: anything you buy yourself and have someone else install is taxed at 20% on the purchase.
What is the TVA certification and who signs it?
Reduced TVA on renovation work used to require a separate paper form, the Cerfa attestation. That requirement was dropped: since the loi de finances for 2025, the client certifies eligibility directly on the devis or invoice instead of filing a standalone document. In practice this means a line stating that the property is more than two years old and that the work matches one of the qualifying categories, which you sign along with the rest of the quote.
The contractor has to keep that certification for five years. If it later turns out to be false, for example because the property was under two years old, the client can be held jointly liable for the tax difference, since the client is the one making the certification. Check the completion date carefully if you've recently bought a property and aren't certain of it.
How to read the TVA lines on a French devis
A properly drafted devis breaks work into separate lines by category, each carrying its own TVA rate, instead of applying one percentage to the whole job. If a quote for a mixed project shows a single flat rate across insulation, a bathroom refit and a new pool, that's worth questioning: it's either overcharging you on work that should be cheaper, or under-billing on work that should be more expensive.
Ask the contractor to state which category each line falls under and to include the client certification language for anything billed at 5.5% or 10%. RGE status is a separate question from the TVA rate: it's worth asking about too, but it affects grant eligibility, not what you're taxed. See what RGE certification covers for that side of it.
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Questions
Frequently asked questions about TVA on renovation work
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No. The reduced TVA rates on renovation and energy work do not carry an RGE (Reconnu Garant de l'Environnement) condition. RGE certification matters for MaPrimeRénov' and CEE grants, which are a separate system with their own rules. A non-RGE contractor can still bill at 10% or 5.5% for qualifying work. Check what RGE certification actually covers before assuming it affects your TVA rate.
No. TVA rates are set by the type of work and the age of the property, not by the owner's income or the property's status as a main or second home. That is different from MaPrimeRénov', which excludes second homes entirely and scales grant amounts by income band. A non-resident who owns a holiday property on the coast pays the same 10% or 5.5% rate as a French resident doing the same job on their main home.
The reduced rates require the dwelling to have been completed more than two years before the work starts. Below that threshold, standard TVA at 20% applies to renovation work, in the same way it applies to new construction. The two-year clock runs from the date the building was declared complete (déclaration d'achèvement des travaux), not from your purchase date, so a property you bought recently can still qualify if it was built earlier.
Yes, and it's common. A single project might combine loft insulation at 5.5%, a repainted and re-tiled bathroom at 10%, and a new pool at 20%. Each category of work carries its own rate on the same job. Ask your contractor to itemise the devis by rate instead of applying one blanket percentage to the whole quote, so you can see which line falls where.