TAXES FONCIERE AND HABITATION

[idun]

This is interesting, why wouldn't you have imagined that Poppy. Did those posters who pay next to nothing give you that impression?

Depending on how long you have been on here, say a while, surely you would have seen me saying that I didn't understand those who used to say that they pay next to nothing in TH and TF and that most french people paid a lot, AND that I was sure that these very low bills would go up. I wasn't being a harbinger of doom, just saying what I felt sure would happen. It always felt unrealistic when I would see and still see people paying so little in local taxes.

In the UK the minimum local taxes are around £1000 for any size property on the lowest scale. Reductions I suppose for people who really are unable to pay, but my Dad for example, pays £750 a year for a one bed flat and he only picks up a total of £800 a month in pension (state and private).

There are lots of people in my old village without a bathroom, some with earth floors still, life can be very 'rude' in France.

Also you are in France, and there is that great thing of solidarite. ie Husband is still paying towards unemployment benefit in France, ( a french pay slip is truly a thing to behold, his is an A4 page and a half long). He would never be able claim chomage as he is just about retired. When I rang and asked why he had to pay that as we now live in the UK, I was well put in my place by the functionnaire and told that he had to pay to be solidaire. What can you do.

Also near where I used to live, maybe you'll be pleased to hear, they are actually going door to door and checking in people's houses these days and adjusting TH and TF accordingly. My friends Dad had put a fold down bed in his shed and a few comforts and they said that that was habitable, so beaucoup extra taxes for them. I won't use the words that Monique used to describe the authorities, it was very very bad language.

[PaulT]

[quote user="Poppy"]Coops I am honestly not trying to sound like a grumpy old §§§ We put the rubbish in the boot of the car and take it to the nearest bins once per week, the nearest bins are in the next canton.

[/quote]

That is very good of you Poppy - lumbering people else where with the cost of getting rid of your rubbish  -  I bet they are extremely pleased.

Fly tipping does the same thing - dumping rubbish and leaving others to pick up the bill for clearing it.

Paul

[Poppy]

I guess Idun that I thought tax was a bit fairer in France than UK. A lifetime ago when we bought a new house in France the TF & TH were 4000 Francs about 350 Euros. This was for a huge house with 2 acres of garden. The house never felt right and we sold it long long story ended up living in a barn and now have to pay TF & TH of over a thousand Euros for one bed no bath.

[Poppy]

[quote user="PaulT"]

[quote user="Poppy"]Coops I am honestly not trying to sound like a grumpy old §§§ We put the rubbish in the boot of the car and take it to the nearest bins once per week, the nearest bins are in the next canton.

[/quote]

That is very good of you Poppy - lumbering people else where with the cost of getting rid of your rubbish  -  I bet they are extremely pleased.

Fly tipping does the same thing - dumping rubbish and leaving others to pick up the bill for clearing it.

Paul

[/quote]

Paul I don't think my two bags of rubbish per week are greatly influencing the bills of the next canton if they are I am only too happy to foot the weekly bill. If I turn left out of my drive the bins for the next canton are one half of a kilometre if I turn right the bins for my canton 3 kilometres I know which is better to walk or drive. What would you do? Also I'm pretty sure that our neighbours have no idea that bins to the right belong to ??? and bins to the left belong to çççç definitely no large signs on the bins stating you can't tip if you are from another canton.

[idun]

In our area all the communes joined together for the rubbish collection, a collectivitie, maybe it was the same in your area, so it wouldn't matter if you took it to the next village.

Why don't they collect your rubbish?

[idun]

Re 'a lifetime ago'. I just looked we were paying 4000ff for TH and TF in 1986. Was 'your' lifetime as long ago as ours? We thought that that was a lot then, no wonder people were buying using a pret pap to exonerate them from TF for 10 or was it 15 years.

And if you are wondering how I could just 'look', I am trying to sort out our french tax and I have every bill since our first year in the file, so it was just next to me.

I keep wondering why yours is so high. Did you ask for planning permission for more than you have? if you did then the assumption on their part is that the work is done and that one pays accordingly. We took years to build an extention and were 'adjusted' well before it was finished and when we did finish it I was told that the final paperwork no longer needed to be handed in as we had taken so long.

Why don't you go and see them and ask if you are paying the right amount, I think that I would.

[velcorin]

[quote user="idun"]( a french pay slip is truly a thing to behold, his is an A4 page and a half long). [/quote]

Agreed, nearly 2 pages for me. Designed to totally defuddle the reader. I lose the will to live reading mine, and neither I, or the missus understand half of it, and I really don't care. It's not like it's optional.

TH/TF. Meaux v. Creuse. 8 times greater in Meaux, but there again we actually have some facilities in Meaux.

[Poppy]

[quote user="idun"]Re 'a lifetime ago'. I just looked we were paying 4000ff for TH and TF in 1986. Was 'your' lifetime as long ago as ours? We thought that that was a lot then, no wonder people were buying using a pret pap to exonerate them from TF for 10 or was it 15 years.

And if you are wondering how I could just 'look', I am trying to sort out our french tax and I have every bill since our first year in the file, so it was just next to me.

I keep wondering why yours is so high. Did you ask for planning permission for more than you have? if you did then the assumption on their part is that the work is done and that one pays accordingly. We took years to build an extention and were 'adjusted' well before it was finished and when we did finish it I was told that the final paperwork no longer needed to be handed in as we had taken so long.

Why don't you go and see them and ask if you are paying the right amount, I think that I would.[/quote]

My lifetime isn't quite as long as yours 1988.

We did ask for planning permission for more than we have completed. We have been to see them several times with the house plans and they confirmed that we are paying tax only on one bedroom, one lounge/kitchen and a toilet. Not sure what our future plans are [:'(]  Close to us a much larger house  3 beds 2 bathrooms etc is paying less tax than us, they submitted their H1 about six years ago.

Know what you mean about french tax bills our file is two huge boxes. Good luck with your french tax.

[idun]

After all this time, we have had to learn exactly what is going on on husband's salary slips.

We are about to do battle with the URSSAF and I need to be armed with as much knowledge as possible.

The reason we never bothered to 'understand' what was happening on them was because we could do nothing about what was on them anyway. His employer was obliged to do what they had to do and we get what is left.

Ah well Poppy, if you have tried to get this down, I'm not sure what else you can do apart to ask for an arbiter to check that it is OK. The full procedure is on the TF form and the writing is so small that I would need a loupe to read it, well I think that that is what that bit is about.