TV Licence &Tax Fonciere.

[Robert Le Macon]

Sorry about the naff user name, best I could do at short notice.

I'm renovating a house and barn in Brittany in the Antrain/Combourg area and have quite happily been paying next to no tax fonciere and habitation for a few years as the buildings are not habitable.

Imagine my surprise when this years Tax Fonciere demand arrived and it had more than doubled due to the addition of a TV licence element. Not only do I not have a French TV I don't even have a French living room to watch it in!

My plan is to pay the Fonciere bit and put an explanatory letter in with the cheque to explain about the lack of TV.

It's not a money thing as the figures are quite low (£80 TV Licence bit) it's the principle. I try my hardest to integrate and do things the French way so I assume with tax avoidance being almost a national sport there must be a way (legal) to not have to pay until I have a TV.

Any ideas?

Great site by the way.

[Owens88]

Hi

Earlier in the year there was a note asking if we wanted to declare that we don't have a TV. The default is they charge you, I think.

Enjoy the work !

John

[Tourangelle]

If I were you, I would put a note in with the cheque and also write a separate letter, my experience of the tax people here is they need to be told twice!

[andyh4]

Robert

the correct procedure (and therefore the only one likely to work) is to go to the hotel d'impots, explain that you have no TV, video or satelite box (of any nationality) at the property, and fill out the appropriate form.

 

 

[Robert Le Macon]

Thanks, we did get a form to fill out telling them we didn't have a TV but obviously that would be too easy.I'll write and see what happens.

[Will]

Not for pedantic reasons, but because some of these topics become used as reference sources, we should point out that the French TV licence is part of the taxe d'habitation rather than taxe foncière.

Which begs the question of why you should have a taxe d'habitation demand anyway if your house is as uninhabitable as you say?

[Robert Le Macon]

Will, of course you're right, the tv licence bit is on my taxe d'habitation demand. When we originally bought the house 6 years ago it wasn't habitable at all and we informed the Hotel D'Impots of this as well as the Mairie. We kept having to tell them as they kept sending a demand.Because our French was rubbish and we were worried about falling foul of 'The System' we paid up. (It was only about £40.)I assume that this is where we went wrong as we can't all of a sudden go back on this. I've now re wired, re plumbed the house as well as fitted a couple of log burners and started erecting internal walls. We've fitted a kitchen of sorts and the bathroom is functional so I suppose on the scale of things the house is habitable now although you wouldn't want to live in it for more than a couple of weeks.(Is habitable subjective?)

My French is OK now although not good enough to go to the local tax office for an argument so I suppose we'll have to keep paying up.

Regards,

Robert  

[Quillan]

May I also suggest that you send any cheques or letters to any French government office as Lettre Recommandé (registered post) so you at least get a signature. Don't forget to keep a copy on file for future use.

A classic example of the benefit of this method was recently when the CPAM computer sent out loads of letters telling people they had not sent in their yearly forms. Total cock up on their behalf but it was nice to know I was OK because I had sent the documents by registered post with signature required. They later said it was a computer glitch but we all seem to have had one, what a waste of paper and postage. Still it's France so never mind.

[Frogslegs]

 

We bought a property in Les Adjots in the Charente for less than 15000 euros last year and have recieved our first tax fonciere....as you can imagine the house and barn is hardly habitable...but they charged us 900 euros!!! It then became apparent that they thought the barn which is as big as the house was actually a house! We paid the bill and they said we would be reimboursed later...which we were, 350 euros was returned. But surely this can not be accurate. There is no land to speak of. 

Our house and gites with one acre of land near Melle in the Deux Sevres is only 550 euros.

As no electricity and water is actually being used and the house is not habitable would we not qualify for a discount. I had heard that second home owners are charged more?

just added to this topic because no reply from recent posting?

[bigjimbishop]

It was very simple for me. I just went to the Hotel des Impots and said I have no TV and they dictated a declaration to me which I then signed. They said they will reissue the tax d'hadit facture next week.

[goose]

My immobilier is quite disgusted that he has to pay for what he considers to be pretty rubbish TV and declared to us that he just ticks a box on the form to opt out and then, presumably, returns the form with a cheque for just the two taxes. He suggested we do the same. (before anyone grumbles - no, I don't have a TV)