Taxe d'habitation and Taxe Foncier

[AnneG]

Can anyone advise me how we get the above bills sent to the UK as we

are not going to be at our holiday home at the time of year when they

are sent out.

Many thanks

Anne

[Loiseau]

Visit or write to the Hotel des Impots that issues them, and ask for everything to be sent to your home address. You'll probably need the lengthy reference number that is involved for each of them.

You may want to set up monthly direct-debits for these, so the money comes straight from your French bank account to the coffers of the tax office.  At least you don't worry about it not being paid on time...

Angela

[Kitty]

I have just arranged the same thing only last year.  In our area, the taxes are issued by different offices so you will have to visit/write to two places.  For me (in 33), the taxe d'h was local and the taxe f was regional.  Visits are easier to ensure that they do what you want them to do.  However, sometimes the offices are a long way (in my case, 1.5 hours for the regional office).  They can ask you all kinds of questions (simple - do you have a television - and difficult - drainage) and so you may need a dictionary for the technical terms.  One of the tax ladies did tell me that she was supposed to have a translation on the computer but I couldn't understand it when she showed me it!

You receive a fine if you do not pay on time so direct debit (abonnement) is a good idea.

[Gardian]

Wish you luck. Finally managed to pay my Tax F for 2005, but despite letters & phone calls, am still struggling to get anyone to take my money for tax d'h. 

[Ron Avery]

Ian

If you read other posts on this topic, ie do a search, you will see that it is not unusual for Taxe d'Habitation not to be charged for some considerable time after you move in.  The French system is notoriously slow in getting round to changes in circumstance and if your property was owned by a pensioner or empty for some time ie exempt from taxe d'Habitation you may not get a bill for a couple of years.  We were like you and worried about it the first year, asked at Les Impots and they said "don't worry about it",  so I didn't.  Best thing to do is put an amount by in case they back date the tax, in some cases they have done this but it is unusual.

[Gardian]

Thanks Ron. I must admit that I wasn't exactly losing sleep over it - just a bit irritated that I can't get the bill out of the way.  Funny isn't it, how we can fret now over paying our bills that we know are due when we've got the money, and when we were younger and skint, we'd have been happy if they never turned up (but they always did!)