France Individual form - new process (at least here in Normandy)

[tinabee]

Having submitted the France Individual form with our tax forms last year (as per the instructions on the form) and following frequent emails and phone calls to find out what had happened to it, we went to the local tax office today and discovered that the process for returning the form to the UK has now changed.

The English version form is now stamped and signed by the "controleur" while you wait so that you can post it to Cardiff yourself. The French version is retained and presumably sent to Paris. The advisor at Cardiff insists that the form should be processed within a few weeks of receipt.

So, if you are submitting a France Individual this year, or if you are still waiting for a response on a previously submitted form, call into the French tax office to get it stamped and returned, otherwise it runs the risk of disappearing into the ether, as our originals did.

Hope this helps.

 

[AnOther]

Sounds like local 'freestyling' to me but a potentially valuable tip all the same, however.............!

It sounds somewhat illogical because if that is the official process then you might well question the purpose of the French copy being sent to Paris - or anywhere ?

More logical to me is that Paris is the official clearing house for FD5's and it's from there that HMRC expect to receive authorised copies and may therefore take no notice of copies received from individuals. I would imagine also that the stamp Paris put on an FD5 is probably not the same one as your local Impots might potentially rendering it invalid by HMRC because of that.

If I'm right then HMRC might just sit on such personal submissions pending receipt of a copy through the usual channels which of course is now never going to arrive at all so the assumption that having the English copy stamped and returned to you to send off yourself will produce the desired result may in fact be having the exact reverse effect !

Please do keep us posted on how it works out for you.

[Suandpete]

When we sent off my "France Individual" form four years ago it was dealt with as per the form - however we have just submitted my husband's form and it was dealt with as above.  We received it completed by the local tax office and so we copied it and sent one copy to Cardiff and another to Paris.   We're still waiting to see what the outcome will be........

[soupagirl]

I took my France Individual form in to our local French tax office 2 years ago at the same time as I handed in our first French tax return. I left it with them, but I don't think they knew what to do with it, and I suspect it was filed in the bin, as I heard nothing more and calls to HMRC confirmed that they had not received it. So last year I filled another one out and repeated the process, but this time asked the officer to stamp the form for me, and pointed out the bit on the form asking French tax offices to forward it to Paris for processing. The lady duly stamped the form, and handed it back to me..."Oh,no, you'll have to send it off to Paris yourself." Which I did ( with a covering letter explaining that this is what I had been advised to do by my tax office) and received confirmation from HMRC within a month or so.  I reckon it's better that way, at least you don't worry about an important bit of paper going missing in the ether of beaurocracy, and you are responsible for sending it on.

[tinabee]

I will be tracking this form closely to make sure it is being processed in the UK (as I do for the R43 form every year). Will keep everyone posted as to the outcome.

[Mac]

When we took our forms to the tax office in Nontron (24) in 2011 they were returned to us stamped and signed within a week and we posted them off to Cardiff ourselves. This system seems to work quicker as we received all our UK tax back within a couple of months.

[NormanH]

The system you describe is the one that finally worked for me, and on a previous thread it worked for others which is why I tried it.

Standing over the person at les Impôts while they sign, and sending it to Cardiff myself quickened things up and broke the deadlock.

You will recall that I had previously tried to use the one on the form and the French tax office wouldn't accept it as I hadn't yet declared the income in France.

Of course I then had the ridiculous situation of the Inland Revenue sending a cheque for the rebate  in sterling which I was unable to cash, but that is another story (they don't do bank transfers!)

[Mac]

Our refund went straight into our UK bank account. There was a space on the form to ask where you wanted refunds to go.

[NormanH]

Yes but I have no UK bank account.

[woolybanana]

Norman, I thought you had moved your extensive holdings to the Turks and Cocopop Islands!

[NormanH]

Shhhhh.....

[minnie]

When OH took his form into the local impots office last year they kept one copy, stamped the second and gave it back to us. We then sent it onto Cardiff and the repayment from HMRC was made within a couple of weeks. Very straightforward.

[tinabee]

[quote user="minnie"]When OH took his form into the local impots office last year they kept one copy, stamped the second and gave it back to us. We then sent it onto Cardiff and the repayment from HMRC was made within a couple of weeks. Very straightforward.[/quote]

 

Here's hoping [:D]