taxes

[Dave&Olive]

I have just recieved this from our estate agent, as we will not be moving into this property untill ours is sold, do we still have to pay the taxe d` habitation or is this a good deal???  

Dear David and Olive,

 

Just a quick note to say that Colin has called to say that he will not be at the completion on the 14th, therefore I have asked the Notaire to send him proxy forms.

 

He has raised the point about the delay in the completion being put back to the New Year as he will be liable to pay for both the rates, Taxe Foncière and Taxe d'habitation.

 

Under french law, for the Taxe d'habitation he is entitled to claim pro rata (in this case 11 months) from you, however he will also have to pay the other one as he will still the owner on January 1st, through no fault of his own,therefore he is asking for you to pay half of it and he will pay half too. I think this is reasonable. What do you think?

 

Other than that all is going well for the 14th.

 

Speak to you again soon.

 

Kind regards

 

Chris.  

                   

[Miki]

Under french law, for the Taxe d'habitation he is entitled to claim pro rata (in this case 11 months) from you, however he will also have to pay the other one as he will still the owner on January 1st, through no fault of his own,therefore he is asking for you to pay half of it and he will pay half too. I think this is reasonable. What do you think?

Dave,

Is the agent pretty kosher?

He has made a blunder with the taxe habitation for a start. This is completely payable by the person in residence as of Jan 1st each year, in other words the legal owner pays if in residence or even of he isn't, unless he is renting the house on that date, then the tenant would be liable.

It is the taxe fonciére that is pro rata, well in the high majority of cases, don't forget, it has to be in the acte to be legal  but it normally is in the acte. It all comes down to who is actually at fault for the delay, if it is the seller, then I would let him pay but for some reason he is offering to pay half the taxe fonc, which will save him money as if he sold before 31st December he would more or less pay all the taxe fond. If he sells after the 31st December then he pays almost nothing, not stupid some sellers you know.

He also knows that if he is residence on the 1st Jan, he has to pay the whole year for taxe hab and taxe fonc and claim taxe fonc pro rata off you (once it is known much later in the year of course) but is trying to tell you that he can claim pro rata for habitation, utter rubbish.

Let us all know the actual statement and there is enough of us on here to put you straighht.

Make my blood boil some of these sellers and agents.

 

 

[Dave&Olive]

thanks Miki for your quick response

The blue type in the post is the actual email I received today.

The cause of the delay is ours I`m afraid, we received notice on the 2nd december that the seller wanted to complete on the 17th december.( should not have paid the €300 if i had known to have the land option shortened it`s over 2500sq metres) but short notice gave us little or no time to make arrangements and had used up all this years holidays so choose our earliest date that we could get there.

hope this extra bit helps

Dave & Olive

[Miki]

Dave,

In that case, the seller should still pay all the taxe foncière for the year 2004, as well as carrying out his legal obligation to pay all the taxe hab for 2004, both of which should have been paid by now anyway.

You can give him a bottle of scotch for the 14 days taxe foncière you will owe, if you want though (17th until the 31st December = 14/365th's of the total fonc. bill)

You can then say that because it is you that put the sale date back, you will take over his legal obligation and pay the taxe hab for 2005, even though as I said, the owner (or the person renting from the owner) in possession of the house on the 1st January is legally obliged to pay the taxe.

Stand your ground, I suspect the buyer is happy enough that you are buying his property anyway.

[Dave&Olive]

Miki thanks

          Will email our estate agent and ask him does he mean for 2004 or for 2005 !!, his email is a bit ambiguous .

          To the second part of our question are we liable to pay taxe d`habitation if the property is empty, we are not looking to move until our property is sold only just put it on the market wednesday so even if it sells now it`s going to be 2-3months before completion

              dave  & olive

 

 

 

[Miki]

Sorry but if the house is deemed habitable then you must pay the taxe habitation. I don't know of any allowance for non habitation.

Depending on your local communes spending, you might find that it is not too expensive anyway.

 

[Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas]

I have been told that if the property is not connected to mains services and has not a stick of furniture in it on 1 January then it is not subject to habitation tax for that year.

[Ron Avery]

There is something odd here, because unless this area is different to the rest of France, then the Tax Fonciere for 2004 had to be paid by 15 October 2004 ( 10% surcharge for late payment) and the seller should have already paid it. 

 If the seller is really asking for a portion covering a month or two, then they are really being tight. If you were in the UK and had paid your rates for the year, would you ask for a proportion back from a buyer?  I doubt it.  When we bought our house in October and the Notaire raised the question of taxes, our (French) seller said "C'est un cadeau".