Fonciere??

[Sydney and Huggy]

We went out the first 2 weeks in

May and put the furniture in as the builder has more or less finished

so not looking to have to pay habitation this year. (Though have since

discovered the chaudiere 'est morte' and having to find cash to replace

that)  Builder and his friends (ex-pats) have been there for several

years and keep telling us "just wait, don't ask about the taxes as

they'll bill you in due course".

Bit cautious about this as don't want to land a bill for 2-3 years at

once.  I seem to recall reading the fonciere bills are issued in the

'third quarter' but don't know if that refers to the current year or

for the forthcoming year.

I know one of you out there will know, can you please tell us?  [8-)]

Thank you

[KathyF]

Our taxe fonciere bill is issued in August and payable by mid-October at the latest.  Our taxe d'habitation bill is issued in mid-October and payable by mid-December. I'm presuming that this isn't just departmental but national practice. Both taxes are for the current year. If you are billed for them, you must pay by the due date or an automatic 10% fine is added to the total.  We found this out by bitter experience, when our tax bills were sent to the wrong address after we'd moved within the UK and we finally received a reminder showing the fine. [:(] We now pay by direct debit, which is so much easier.

I understand that if your house was unfurnished and therefore uninhabitable on January 1st this year, taxe d'habitation isn't payable, but as far as I know you need to be able to prove that by means of an official attestation. We had to get the Maire of our commune to give us a letter saying our house was undergoing renovation before we could get an exemption from taxe d'hab.

Taxe fonciere is always payable, whatever the state of the house and whether or not it is lived in. To be honest, I would ignore the advice of your builder an his friends and get your tax status sorted out properly.  It's not worth getting on the wrong side of the tax office. How long have you owned the house?  If it's more than a few months, have you had any bills for previous years?

[Sydney and Huggy]

Thanks Kathy.  We only bought last August and its been a building site since.  The builder finished the bulk of the work in mid April so it was only after then that anyone could contemplate staying in it.  It was only in May this year that we got furniture in and stayed there.

[KathyF]

If you had to have planning permission for your work, you'll have been, or will be, sent form H1 which you have to fill in and return now the house is habitable. You will get 2 years grace at the old tax rates before your house is revalued to take account of the improvements and your taxes will go up. [:(] It happened to us last year, but the rise wasn't as bad as we'd been expecting.

[Sydney and Huggy]

We never saw any paperwork as the architect dealt with the Mairie and Batiment de France for us.  I'll ask him first chance I get to see if he submitted it.