“Between the LMNP and the Girardin scheme, which one saves the most tax in Martinique?” That’s the question I’m asked most often when an owner is about to buy a one-bedroom flat in Le Diamant or a villa in Les Trois-Îlets. And it’s a trap: you’d be comparing two tools that don’t play in the same league. Overseas tax relief in Martinique isn’t about choosing “the better of the two,” but about understanding that one works on your rental income over time, while the other works on your overall income tax for a single tax year.
As a resident of the island and a manager of furnished tourist rentals, I see too many investors sold the Girardin scheme thinking they’re “optimising their Airbnb.” This guide compares both schemes with realistic figures and concrete owner cases, updated for 2026. It remains educational and does not replace the advice of a chartered accountant, the only professional qualified to validate your set-up.
Two opposing logics that always get confused
Before comparing, let’s draw a distinction that many sellers keep deliberately blurry.
- The LMNP (non-professional furnished landlord status) acts on the tax generated by your rental: it reduces, or even cancels out, the taxable base of your rental income, year after year, for as long as you operate the property.
- The Girardin scheme acts on your overall income tax: it’s a one-off tax reduction obtained in exchange for an overseas investment, with no mechanical link to how your furnished rental is run.
In other words, the LMNP is a long-term operating regime; the Girardin, a one-time tax investment. A savvy owner can even combine them: LMNP at actual costs on the rental, plus an industrial Girardin scheme on the side if their mainland tax bill justifies it.
LMNP at actual costs: the lever that wipes out tax on your rental income
Renting out a short-stay furnished property in Sainte-Anne, Les Trois-Îlets or Le François falls by default under the LMNP regime: your rental income counts as industrial and commercial profits (BIC), not property income. Two regimes exist — the micro-BIC (a 30% allowance if unclassified, 50% if classified) and the actual-costs regime, by far the most powerful for tax relief.
How depreciation works
Under the actual-costs regime, you deduct your real expenses (loan interest, property tax, concierge services, insurance, energy) and you depreciate the property and the furnishings. Depreciation is an accounting charge that doesn’t leave your cash flow but wipes out taxable profit, often for ten to fifteen years. And expenses run heavier overseas: furniture and appliances marked up by the octroi de mer (overseas duty), tropical equipment to replace quickly (air conditioners, outdoor furniture eaten away by salt), repairs after the cyclone season — all items that swell the depreciable base.
Concrete case no. 1 — The classified studio in Sainte-Anne
Claire buys a studio for €180,000, 400 metres from Pointe Marin, financed by a loan. Rented at €90 to €110 a night through the dry season (the Carême, December to April), it generates €16,000 in rental income a year.
- Depreciation of the building (excluding land, ~30 years): ~€5,000/year.
- Depreciation of furniture and equipment (5 to 7 years): ~€3,000/year.
- Loan interest, property tax, concierge, insurance, charges: ~€8,500/year.
Total deductions: ~€16,500, more than the rental income itself. Taxable result: €0, and the surplus carries over to the following tax years. Claire pays neither income tax nor the 17.2% social levies on this income, for several years. The classified micro-BIC would have taxed her on €8,000: on a property financed by a loan and furnished with imported goods, the actual-costs regime almost always beats the micro-BIC in Martinique.
The Girardin scheme: a “one-shot” tax reduction, not a rental tool
This is where I most often set the record straight. The Girardin scheme exists overseas, but in two families — neither of which is designed to “save tax on your furnished rental.”
Girardin housing: almost never for tourist rentals
Girardin housing targets social and intermediate housing rented unfurnished on a yearly basis, under strict caps on rent and tenant income. A seasonal tourist rental is therefore not eligible. The “Girardin furnished tourist rental” promise that blooms in some adverts is misleading: to target the Carême and Carnival (February–March), the right tool remains a well-built LMNP.
Industrial Girardin: a tax investment unrelated to your rental
The other family, the industrial Girardin, finances new productive equipment operated in the overseas territories. Through an approved structuring firm, you put up funds one year and the following year obtain a tax reduction greater than your stake: the gap is the return. Three cardinal points:
- you don’t get your stake back: the reduction is meant to slightly exceed it, that’s the whole principle;
- the operation is disconnected from your furnished rental: it reduces your overall tax, not the running of the villa;
- there is a clawback risk if the operator fails: only go through approved and insured firms.
Concrete case no. 2 — The heavily taxed executive
Marc, an executive in mainland France, pays €9,000 in tax a year. He puts €8,000 into an industrial Girardin operation and the following year obtains a reduction of around €9,000: his tax drops to zero and he has “earned” the gap of about €1,000 (10 to 12% in one year). But this has nothing to do with his studio rented out in Le Marin: the Girardin reduced his executive’s tax, not his rental tax, already neutralised by the actual-costs regime.
