Property taxes when you sell

[Simmy]

Hi, I sold my maison secondaire back in January and no longer have a residence in France.

I've just received (ie today) my Taxe d'habitation and my Taxe Fonciere.  I was surprised to receive them but as far as I can tell IT IS up to me to pay them as the house was still mine on 1 January.  The purchaser did pay a sum for the Fonciere as part of the transaction (I was smugly thinking that this was for his proportion of the taxe I paid in 2007, but it's finally dawned on me that the taxe is paid in arrears and it was for his proportion of the 2008 bill which I've just received).

Before I arrange for payment, please could someone confirm I am correct in this and it is up to me to pay?

On the subject of paying is there an easy way to pay from UK; I've no longer got my French bank account so as far as I can see I can't pay on line (in fact only Habitation seems possible on line as I can't access the Fonciere bill). 

Thanks

Simone

[mint]

As I understand it, Simmy, if you owned the property on 1st January then you pay the TH for the whole year.

Then if your purchaser paid his proportion of the TF, the rest of the bill is yours to pay.

Don't know about in arrears.  The taxes normally apply to the "current year", eg, TF bill received towards end 2007 applies to the year 2007.

Hope I've got that right and hope you can understand my explanation.  I'm not my usual clear self; still a bit cross about something someone has said on another thread.

[Benjamin]

If you sold in January and the purchaser paid their portion of the TF then you can't have a lot to pay.

[nectarine]

I'm guessing we're talking about January 2008 when you still owned the house. Well the taxe fonciere should have been split proportionately between you and your buyer for that year. The 2008 fonciere and habitation bills are normally issued towards the end of that same year, so the bills you have are for 2008. As your buyer has paid a proportionate amount for the TF for that year then you are straight with him for his portion but it is up to you to pay the full bill. However, you can't access it on line probably because the house is now in his name, I'm guessing.

The bills came out a month or so ago, for the owner of the property in January of that year ... hence that's you to pay. So you are paying the full hab and fonciere bills, but your buyer has given you a cheque for his portion of it.

If you haven't got a French bank account any more then you need to make a bank transfer from your UK bank - make sure that your bank pays all bank charges otherwise the French taxe hab and fonciere people will come after you for the missing amount, plus a penalty. If you take the tax bills into your UK bank, they should be able to get the full bank details to make a payment.

[Simmy]

Thanks to all of you.  As I thought, I just need to bite the bullet.  Yes, the purchaser did pay most of the TF, but it was lumped in with the house sale and at the time I thought it was his share of the 2007 tax which I paid last Nov - Doh!!.