Starting to pay tax

[Rob G]

Hi,

We moved to Normandy from the UK at the end of 2005, and I started my own business here in the middle of 2006. So I submitted my first French tax return in May, declaring 2006 income. Can anyone give me a simple answer to the following:

- All other things being equal, at what point will I have to start paying tax based on the 2006 revenue I have declared?

- How does the payment schedule work (i.e. quarterly/half-yearly etc.) ?

- Is it possible to set up payment by monthly direct debit from the outset ?

I've had a look through the impots website, but as usual it's not that helpful if you're looking for anything outside of a fairly narrow range of information.

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[Ron Avery]

As far as I know you have to pay the first bill in full, that will come in September.

Next year you will receive a bill in February for one third of this year's bill and another in June, the one in September will be the balancing bill .  These first two payments are payments on account for next year.  If your income has significantly increased from 2006 to 2007 you can make adjusting payments, in fact you have to if your income has gone up by more than 10%.  I believe that these payments can be paid monthly by direct debit, one poster on here had set that up, but I don't know how it is done, depends on how big your tax bill is I guess.

[Clair]

If you moved at the end of 2005, technically, you should have declared for the first time in 2006.

This point aside...

You can apply to pay monthly by DD once you receive your Avis d'imposition in Sept.

More details here: Souscrire ou modifier votre souscription à la mensualisation ou au prélèvement à l'échéance de vos impôts

[Rob G]

Ron,

Thanks for the info. So I'm going to have to pay the whole 2006 tax in one go in September? That seems a little harsh...

Looks like I may have to resort to phoning the tax people to see if there are any other options.

Rob

[Rob G]

Clair,

Thanks for the info. That link isn't working at the moment - the site is donwn for maintenance. I'll have a look at it later.

As for why I didn't do a tax return in 2006, I was wondering whether anyone would spot that! I actually phoned the tax office in early 2006 and explained the situation, and they said there was no need to do a declaration in 2006. This was something to do with the fact that we were only here for one month in 2005, during which time we had no income, and had already paid full UK tax on all income up to the point we came to France.

Rob

[Ron Avery]

As I said Rob as far as I knew, there were no options to do this on the first tax bill, maybe you can on the link that Claire has found, but according to my advice of tax to be paid you can make monthly paymernts on receipt of your tax bill normally in July, but the total still has to be paid by the date on the tax bill in September.

 I don't see why it is  harsh to have to pay a tax bill 9 months after the year end, you have had the income after all, in the UK you had tax deducted at source under PAYE if employed, and if you were self employed you did not get time to pay once your tax was declared given that it was paid a year behind, you also have to pay on account in the UK for the following year as you will now have to in France.