Monday 3 March 2014

Renovation Project - Tax d'habitation in France

Renovation Project - Tax d'habitation in France

Well last night was back to normal thank goodness! And we have a busy day today. I am going to the tax office to sort out our tax d’habitation, we paid it last year but the form was wrong, our house was classed as 3 apartments so we don’t know if we have paid too much.

A friend is going to go with me as her French is much better than mine; I am just hoping our S1 forms arrive today from the UK so that we can sort our health out as well.

The S1’s don’t arrive in the post so I will have to do them at another time, we get to the tax office with all of the information I require, I have a photocopy of our sale, stating that we bought a house and not 3 apartments, I also take a photocopy of the tax d’habitation and everything else that may be of help. A really big tip when you are in France and have to go to any government department is  always take your 
information with you and have photocopies available, this will make sure that things go much more smoothly.

We go to speak to an official and I am really impressed with myself, I only have to have my friend help me out a few times, I manage most of the conversation myself!

It turns out that the house is actually registered as 3 houses and not 3 apartments! We are not sure why this is the case, but think it may be because when people did last live there, there were more than one person who rented a room.

However the house is confirmed as one house, our tax d’habitation amount was correct. The official also asks lots of questions about who lives there now, so I explain that it is just me and John, so she wants to know where we work, I explain that we don’t work and the look of shock when she realises neither of us are working is quite funny and she asks me to justify how we can live in France if we are not retired and my husband does not work (not why I don’t work, just why John doesn’t work) I explain that we will be opening a chambre d’hôte (B&B) and she explains that I have to register with the tax office when we are open, which was really helpful.

So hopefully all of our property taxes are now sorted and we are registered as living full time in the house and it is not a second home.

We also ask for our tax returns but we are too early, these need to be completed in May, we now just have to wait and see if we have one sent to us or whether we have to go back in explain that we live here, I’ll let you know how this goes.

Back at the house and John has been busy, we were never sure what to do with the open space on the stairs, we did not want to build it back in as we like the open look, but we cannot have a hole to the stairs, especially as we will be having toddlers to visit.

John has some wood that we had bought and is adding them to the space like spindles, this kills every bird with one stone and once stained and varnished look like they have always been there, we have pondered this dilemma for so long, and are now glad we left it as the solution is so simple.




We have a dinner invite tonight, we are going to go for dinner with a family that came to visit us last summer, these are people who we met through the blog and have given us such support over the last 18 months, the dinner was amazing (I’m now panicking about when we invite them to dinner as my cooking is nothing like this!) we even get to bring some of the carrot cake home with us. Thank you for such a wonderful evening.


It amazes me how many great friends we have made since starting this blog from around the world and how many we have actually met up with, John is now getting used to the idea that strangers from the internet can call at any time, without freaking out, because we have found the ones we meet are very similar to us and people we would choose to be friends with if we were to meet them in a more conventional manner.

8 comments:

  1. Hi Jenny,

    As a tip, do not file your French Income tax return until you have the S1 forms and the Carte Vitale. If are receiving any form of UK State Pension then you are not liable for the 'cotizations' (social charges) on your tax in France but you must be registered with CPAM to prove this - my tax bill was reduced by over €1000 when we submitted the evidence.

    It's coming on, good luck for Easter

    David

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  2. Glad you got the tax d'habitation sorted out. What would we do without photocopies? The administration is complicated at first but once it's all sorted it goes quite smoothly (that's what we found).

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    1. Hi Anji, photocopies was a tip given to us when we first arrived, it really does make life go more soothly, we also keep a scanned copy of everything as well to be on the safe side (Maybe I am becoming more French than I realise with my new found love of paperwork ;)

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  3. I am pretty certain that you will have to pick up the tax forms this year, once you have put in a return then they will send them automatically to you each year.

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    1. Thanks for that Micheal, when we called in they said they would be ready to collect in May, and that they would have to be completed and returned by the 10th May, does this sound right to you ?

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  4. Hi , I am Blogger in Oxfordshire. Been blogging 8 years now. I have met so many so many people through. Logic.g. Been to P Paris and to Cahors to stay with bloggers, who I had never met .and in May going to Limoges for a week to friends who I met in England, I have been to London to meet people who have holidaymakers from France and a other lady came to Oxford from Vancouver .and I gave her little tour. And just recently 3 Italians. IT sure opens up the world. :-) I found your blog through Aussie in France who I follow.

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    1. Hi Anne
      Glad you found us, yes IT opens up a whole new world, I've loved blogging and chatting to people from around the world, pop in for a coffee if you are ever in this part of France :)

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