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First Tax Demand, how soon?


BobDee

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We have been permanently here for just three months and to date have had no communication from any French tax authority. Do we have to chase them or will they wait 'till we have been here for a full year?
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If you moved here permanently in 2007 you wont have to complete your first tax form until May 2008 (for the year 2007). But, if you moved to France sometime in 2006 you need to complete it this year, for 2006.

They won't chase you - you have to go to your local Hotel d'Impots and collect the necessary forms. After that they send them to you automatically.

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Thanks Zeb, We arrived here 23rd Jan, so we can assume that we have a full year to save up our pennies. Does this apply to local taxes as well?. I feel we should be paying something for our refuse collection etc.
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sorry i don't mean to hijack, but i went to local hotel d'impots last year (our first year here), gave them all the information, and they said (as you have correctly stated above of course) that I didn't need to do anything for 2006 but that they would send me the forms for this year ....   nothing has arrived.     Has everyone else had their forms then, because I was waiting to receive mine, but now I am thinking I should go back and try to collect one?
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Yes londoneye for the first year you have to go and fetch them yourself.

You need to ask for a 2042, a 2047 and a 3916. The 3916 is for reporting your bank account(s) but when I asked for it last year they just didn't give me one although this may be down to the individual tax office.

Also for the first year you cannot submit on line.

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You will be liable for two taxes locally - the Taxe D'Habitation and the Taxe Fonciere.  You should introduce yourself to your local Mairie who will tell you all about this and also how to register for your Carte D'Assurance Maladie - i.e. health cover.  I am 66, and I pay my doctor 21 euros (fixed fee) when I see him every three months to get a prescription for athritis treatment, but the local health authority puts 14 euros back in my bank account within a month.  I pay only 65% of the cost of my medication - I just show my Carte Vitale to the pharmacist.  My village has a dedicated office to help with all social problems, and whilst it is not set up specially for ex-pats they are very helpful.  I do speak to them in French but they make a big effort to understand me.

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Monaco,

Thanks for that. I now understand that Income tax is payable after the first full year but are the "local" taxes payable at the same time or are they due before the first full year is up?

 

BobD

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thanks benjamin - so they told me a porky when they assured me they would send them !    Actually it was funny because my intent was to register the car - and it was only when I queried whether the car required a controle technique that the woman realised I should have been in the office upstairs - somehow I had managed to leave the word 'voiture' out of my entire conversation !! Hey ho .. looks like another visit to the nice lady at the tax office.
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[quote user="BobDee"]

Thanks for that. I now understand that Income tax is payable after the first full year but are the "local" taxes payable at the same time or are they due before the first full year is up?

BobD [/quote]

If you arrived on 23rd January 2007 then you will not be liable for any taxe d'habitation for this year - that should be paid by the person who occupied or owned the house on 1st January. As the taxe d'hab is based on your income you should not receive a bill for this for you to pay until you have completed your first tax return next year.

You should be liable for taxe foncière for 2007 but as the bill will not arrive until October or November you wont pay until then- IMHO.

Sue

 

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Thanks Sue,

Technically we were the owner of the house from 21st Dec 2006, arriving as I said 23rd Jan. We didnt find any tax demands amoungst all the junk in our letter box upon our arrival. . I'm all for playing the waiting game, but dont want to incurr any lateness penalties.

 

BobD

 

 

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If you owned the house in December 2006 then you will be liable for both hab and fonciere for 2007, it doesn't matter when you started living in the house.  Also taxe d'hab is not related to your income, only in that if your income is below a certain thresshold then you will be exempt from it but you still have to pay it whether you have submitted a tax return or not, otherwise all these second home owners would be exempt, and they're not!!!   Both of these taxes are usually collected in the autumn.
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Hi

Our bills come in November each year.  We get a separate bill for rubbish collection of around 60 euros for 6 months, again I expect if such a system exists in your area you won't see this bill until June.

Coco, Tax d'hab most definitely is based on income, it's been discussed on here many times, mine was 300 the first year when I had made no tax return, the next when we had just started in business it was 50 euro's, this year with a full year under our belts we are expecting to return to the 300 mark.  If you check the bill your income is stated in the top right. 

Panda

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As I said before, if your earnings are below a certain thresshold then you are exempted, or pay an extremely low amount but the actual amount that should be paid doesn't change.  Ours has always remained at 150 euros for the last 8 years from when we were in the UK making no French tax return to being here with quite  a high income declared in France, we then didn't have to pay anything for a couple of years because our income dropped dramatically and wasn't high enough (but the bill came through nonetheless, for the same amount of 150 euros, it just said that we didn't have to pay it)  and now with 4 full years under our belts and a reasonable income we do have to pay again - 150 euros.  And that rate was the same as the previous owner had paid who was a high-earning Parisian.  Same for absolutely everybody else I know.  Friends in Limoux paid the same on their house for the 3 years they had it as 2nd home owners, the same when they lived here for a year with a low income and the same now that they have a pretty good income.  My parents pay the same now that my dad has retired and receives a very good pension to when they lived here before he was able to receive his pension and was just living on savings.

Oh and incidentally, our income isn't mentioned anywhere on the bill.  I think you may well find the reason for these discrepancies is that different departements operate differently.  We had some B&B guests staying here last week from Poitou Charente who are convinced that come his 60th birthday later this year his taxe d'hab and TV licence combined will drop to 1 euro.  I told him that this is absolute rubbish as he and his wife will be both be getting very good pensions but he argued black was white that this is the case because he has seen his neighbours bill.  My parents are over 60 and it certainly isn't true here - but in the end I just said that he was obviously fortunate to live in Poitou Charente.  I doubt it is true, his neighbour (French) is possibly on a very low income.  But you can't really argue with the guests can you? [;-)]

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[quote user="Panda "]Tax d'hab most definitely is based on income, it's been discussed on here many times, mine was 300 the first year when I had made no tax return, the next when we had just started in business it was 50 euro's, this year with a full year under our belts we are expecting to return to the 300 mark.  If you check the bill your income is stated in the top right. [/quote]I think I can clarify this.   The taxe d'habitation is not based on  income.  The income number that appears on the form (top right) is labelled "RFR", which means revenu fiscal de référence; you will find this on your income tax assessment, and it's used in some mysterious way as part of your tax identification.  If and when you opt to make your tax declaration on line, you'll find that this is one of the numbers you have to enter from your previous year's return, together with your tax i/d and your numéro de télédéclarant.

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Hi AllanB

How come it changes then based on how much your income is, this has been discussed many times before.  Mine changes with my income as I previously said, not exempted but the amount actually changes year on year.  You also have allowances for number of people living at the address etc.  If it's not income based then why is it changing?

Panda

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Panda: it's based on the notional rental value of your property, which I think is assessed by the local mairie.  Both the value and the rate can change, as could the allowance for dependants, as you mentioned.

However, if your income is less than a certain amount the tax is reduced, so it can be affected by income and I apologize for suggesting it isn't. 

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