Should a student pay habitation tax?

[mogs]

Our daughter is in her final year of Uni. She lives away from home in a student residence bed sit. She pays rent for this (a ridiculous amount considering its only a bed sit), and receives a little bit of money from CAF and a small bourse.

Both these are calculated to her Dad's income so she only receives the minimum allowance. Obviously we have to help her financially, as we do for our children, and therefore are allowed to claim the non justified allowance on our tax.

She has now received a bill for tax habitation, which considering the size of the flat she has seems outrageous. We are only paying 118 euros more for a 3 bedroomed property. She seems to think what she has to pay in habitation is also based on her Dad's income.

As she has no income (except CAF/Bourse and our allowance to her) does anyone know if she should pay tax habitation?

[suein56]

Some help here perhaps :

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/particulier/questions/etudiant-je-loue-un-logement-dois-je-payer-la-taxe-dhabitation-et-la

and here :

https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F274

Edit : apologies I cannot do live links from my tablet. You will have to copy and paste.

Sue

[richard51]

Would you be asking the question if it was for an offspring who was working?

Don't think you legally need to pay any money to "help out" as well if that helps.

[Chancer]

Yes of course, they should pay like anyone else, its the first step towards independance.

 

Nonetheless there are the same exonérations or partial exonérations granted as there would be to anyone on a low income, they depend on the persons revenue fiscale de référence or that of their parents if they are still attached fiscally to the foyer.

 

My student renters dont pay it, not because they are students though, none of the renters pay it because they are renting en location meublée, most student accomodation is usually meublé so its worth checking that the landlord is not trying it on.

 

I get a rush of people during December looking to rent from Jan 1st because they want to avoid paying the taxe d'hab for the year, often they know they will not be in their job/whatever for the full year.

[richard51]

Sorry but it somewhat telling, mogs, that you are more interested in your finances rather than hers based on the comment that you are paying..

[NormanH]

If you live in the country it could well be that the taxe d'habitation of a flat in town is a bit of a shock, but don't forger that it is going down by a third  each year starting from next year until it disappears completely.

Flats seem to be more expensive than houses and of course towns are much more so than country properties.

Even in my second place, which is only a village of 3000 I pay about 750 a year, but of course Béziers being a town is much more.

[mogs]

[quote user="richard51"]Sorry but it somewhat telling, mogs, that you are more interested in your finances rather than hers based on the comment that you are paying..[/quote]

I think you misunderstand Richard. It's purely a question as to why a student with "No earned income" should have to pay? I detailed the circumstances because usually forum repliers like to know all the details.

We are very proud of our daughter and will support her to the ends of the earth, financially and emotionally, as much as we can. She has done, and still doing incredibly well without much support from her parents who only speak and read a little French.

But, another question, Why do low income persons not pay habitation when a student with no income has to? Does that seem fair?

Thanks to Sue, Chancer and Norman for constructive comments.

[mogs]

[quote user="richard51"]Would you be asking the question if it was for an offspring who was working?

Don't think you legally need to pay any money to "help out" as well if that helps.[/quote]

Of course we help her, she receives minimum help financially because her dad "works".

We haven't found it easy financially , we too have bills to pay so have gone without things like holidays and happy to do that, to give her a good education but don't all parents do that?

[suein56]

mogs wrote : She lives away from home in a student residence bed sit.

If this is furnished then - according to the links I gave you above - she shouldn't be paying taxe d'hab; but you/she have to apply for exonoration as this isn't automatic.

Sue

[Lehaut]

We have two sons at Uni in France. Neither has paid taxe d'habitation whilst they lived in student accommodation (CROUS). For the last year in Toulouse however, the eldest stayed in private rented accommodation, furnished. He did pay. (see under) Both are still "attached" to the family impôt.

However

À savoir :

Si vous occupez une chambre meublée chez une personne qui loue ou sous-loue une partie de son habitation, vous ne payez pas de taxe d’Habitation. Celle-ci demeure établie au nom du loueur pour l'ensemble du logement, y compris la pièce louée en meublé.

Certaines résidences sont exonérées de taxe d'habitation :

les résidences universitaires gérées par le CROUS ;

les résidences affectées au logement des étudiants, dont la gestion est assurée par tout organisme dans des conditions financières et d'occupation analogues à celles des CROUS.

[Chancer]

I think you misunderstand Richard. It's purely a question as to why a student with "No earned income" should have to pay?

 

I was going to write that I paid the full taxe d'hab when I had zero income so why should a student be different, then I had a doubt and looked through all my old bills, I was wrong!

 

When I was off the radar for years I paid the full amount (more fool me) for several years I badgered them for dégrèvements which they gave me just to get rid of me, when I finally submitted tax returns including several backdated ones I got refunds for 100% of what I had paid (even after the dégrèvements) in the 2 previous years since then as my RFR has risen I pay only partial taxe d'hab, TBH I was unaware of this before looking through the bills.

 

If your daughter submits a déclaration des impôts and has a zero or low revenue fiscale de référence her tax d'hab bill should be zero, if it isn't then simply challenge it quoting her RFR.

 

For reference from my bills I can see that when my RFR was zero I paid nothing at all, when it was €1900 I paid approx 10%, when it was €5000 I paid approx 24% but I always had to pay the redevance audiovisuelle, are you sure that is not what  she is being asked to pay?

 

Look carefully at the bill is it for €137? i.e. taxe d'hab = 0 redevance audiovisuelle €137?

 

Even that a student can get away without paying if they are canny.

[mogs]

Thanks Chancer. The taxed hab includes the audio visual plus another for hab.

She says her form shows it is not a principale residence as her tax office is the same as ours and not where she lives? It shows her as a secondary residence.

Just confused really as ours doesn't include her

[andyh4]

But if your tax return inadvertently still continues to include her (with the benefits that brings in your tax return), then she is still linked to you and your home. She will need to fill in an individual tax return and you will need to ensure she is not included in the calculation of yours (IIRC it is called "parts").