Certificate of Residence

[Mac]

We have filled in Self Assessment forms for UK tax ( as we still own a property there) as well as filling in our french tax forms. The UK forms have been returned saying we need to send them a Certificate of Residence. Where and how do we get one?

[AnOther]

When my local Hotel des Impots asked for this for my 2nd tax return (?) I went to the Mairie and they knocked me one off from a pre-printed pad behind the counter !

Hope someone at HMRC understands French !

[powerdesal]

''Hope someone at HMRC understands French ''

I suspect that many don't even understand English, never mind French. Urdu / Hindi / Pashto maybe.

[Mac]

Can I just edit my first post-sorry! On re-reading the letter from HMRC it says I need a ''certificate from the overseas tax authority stating that you are resident for tax purposes for the period in question, which must be stated on the certificate.'' I t also says that it must have the amount of the income that is subject to tax must also be shown. Sorry for the duff first post!!!

Also if it needs to show what amount is taxed in France(all of ours bar the rental) -wouldn't that mean you would need a new one every year?

[cooperlola]

Have you filled in the france individual tax form yet?

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/france-individual.pdf

Once you've done that and got it stamped by your local impots office and passed on via Paris this will give the UK tax man the information he needs automatically.

EDIT : If my suspicion is correct and this is the problem then, afaik, you must continue to declare all income in the UK as well as France and wait until the paperwork gets through the system and you get a refund from the UK.  You cannot, to my knowledge, just stop paying income tax in the UK until you've done this.

[Aly]

I am no expert but you should have completed a P85 when you left the UK advising them of your move. If you rent your UK home through a agent you also need to get permission exemption for non resident or the agent will have to collect tax due directly from the rent.

[Mac]

Cooperola-yes filled in that form and took it to the French tax office in Nontron together with our French tax forms (first time we've paid French tax only been here since April 2011)

Aly-Yes filled in a P85 when we left the UK and sent it to our tax office in the UK and have filled in all the relevent forms for our rental property including non-resident landlord forms.

I will ring the tax office tomorrow and see if the Individual Tax Form is what they want. If it is they will have to wait for the French authorities to send them on.Thanks for the answers. Nice to know that we seem to have filled in everything we needed to!!

[Mac]

Spoke to a Technical Advisor at HMRC and she agreed that if we sent a form that had tax details on we would need to send a new one every year so she said that a simple certificate of residence from the Marie would suffice as all the other info would come from the Individual Tax Form when it was returned from the French tax office. Thanks for all the help.

[cooperlola]

It sounds to me as though you got a sensible response then.  Glad you're sorted, Mac.

[Mac]

Sometimes you are just lucky and get a sensible person on the other end of the phone who looks at the facts and gives an answer and not just at what the rules say!!