Tax audits

[allanb]

Is there anyone who's had a tax audit and would be willing to tell us something about how it went? 

I should make it clear that I'm not expecting one, and my conscience is fairly clear.  I'm just curious.  I don't know anyone who's been audited, and I wonder how often it actually happens. 

[Will]

Yes, and not a very pleasant experience. Demanded proof of everything and anything - the matter being queried was legitimate expenses incurred by Mrs Will in the course of her work, but they required my UK salary slips etc etc. There were a lot of late and sleepless nights worrying about it, and trying to gather the evidence from diary entries, receipts and so on. It was all spread out over several months.

It furthermore involved us in the extra expense of using an accountant, without her it would have been difficult to handle despite Mrs W's near-fluent French language skills. Possibly the queries arose because it was the first year our tax returns had been comparatively simple so we had done them ourselves; though the impression given was that Mme Impôts had great difficulty accepting that Mrs W did the job she did for such small reward (particularly as Mrs W still had to meet her own travel, phone etc bills, despite being salaried rather than self-employed) so Mme Impôts was convinced we were on the fiddle.

The initial demands for extra tax payments were gradually whittled down, eventually (and very reluctantly) to zero after we had managed to come up with a rather obscure bit of proof demanded by the impôts. Just as well, because our original return was probably far more honest than the majority.

It left a very sour taste and was probably a significant factor in our ceasing to be French fiscally resident; most likely having 'got one over' as the tax people saw it, our dossier would be well and truly marked for future years.

[allanb]

Sorry to hear all that. Thank you for telling us.

[Les]

I was checked 3 years after claiming tax relief for a wood burner installation.