Tax rebate scam

Hello. Has anyone received an email purporting to be from impôts.gouv.fr saying you are due a refund on overpaid income tax or tv licence? Going thru junk mail this morning, I came across such an email sent to me 9-Sep-2017. Wants me to complete an attached form and send it back. I suspect this is a scam. Anyone else ? Keith.

Hi Keith

If by good fortune…you are due a rebate from the gov… they will send a cheque… or put it straight back into your bank account. You need do nothing ! (I get a cheque every year for an amount of tax that is prepaid… then refunded to me :grin:)

As you suggest… these emails are rubbish… and the government site is constantly warning folk against such scams…

You can go into your personal space and check out your stuff… and there is a button marked RECLAMER if you want to make a claim.

https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/particulier

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Thank you Stella for your reply. I suspected as much. I always paid my taxes by sending a cheque but I’m told they let you do it online these days. Do you know if I can do this for both TF and TH ? Keith

If your bill is more than 2000 euro… this has to be paid by DD or on-line.

If less than 2000 euro… cheque is still OK…

checkout the link below…

Yes Keith, absolutely. We do and gain an extension on the time before the funds are collected.

Since there is no way of avoiding paying these taxes… it makes sense to have a DD in place… whether monthly or a one-off.

When you receive your bill, it should tell you the deadline for organising payment and the many ways to do so, including online…

Point taken stella but there are many (us included) who are wary of the
DD system since you seem to loose control of what goes on. Paying
on-line for us is so simple and straightforward it seems daft not to.

Tell me, do you also get and extension (I think a week) on the due due
date if paying by DD?

Thanks both. Problem I sometimes have is that I’m not around to receive the TF demand when the postaamn delivers it and by the time I get back, I miss the deadline (although they haven’t hit me with a late payment charge… yet). I have been trying to set up an acount on their website so I can pay onlline, but it keeps telling me it isn’t yet activated. I have set up my username and password (tick), and responded to the email they send you to complete the registration process (tick), but it still squawks at me when I try to login. I’m trying to get away from this cheque stuff (which I’ve been doing for the last 13 years, both at a place I had in Perpignan and now at a place I have in Marseillan. As most things French, nothing is straightforward. I’d bet they won’t accept my debit card payment when I attempt to pay even though it’s with a French bank. (and that card expires end of this month - haven’t received new one yet - going away this coming Sunday). C’est la vie, Keith

Graham… I know how you feel… and I was wary for some time… but the fear of late-payment made me pluck up courage.

I pay TH and TF each by DD … in a lump sum (annually) rather than monthly… I know what I have to pay in October…for TF…(I am still waiting for TH to plop into my personal space on gouv.fr)… I transfer enough money from savings to current account and all is well… they take it when they say… never a problem so far…

Nowadays the only things I don’t pay by DD are the Insurances for cars and houses… as these I like to review every now and again…

I’ve just had a look… TF will be taken 26th October… and if paying by cheque the date would be 15th October… so, yes, there is an extension by DD

@Keefie

Whatever you get up to this year… next time you are in France, pop along to your Trèsor Publique and get yourself logged on properly. It will make things so much easier for you…:relaxed:

Thanks for that stella.

The only thing I don’t like about DD in France is the lack of control
you can place on it once set. Other than that, I agree; paying on-line
suits us fine and like you, we too pay it in all one go.

The French authorities do make it extraordinarily easy to pay taxes.
Very impressive system.

If you split your time between Britain and France and the tax demands get sent to your French address while you are not there have them sent to your UK address instead.

No, but I have received one purporting to be from the Inland Revenue.
Bad choice on their part because we no longer pay tax in UK.

Easiest thing is to get your Personal Space set up on gouv.fr and you can see what is due, when etc etc… and you have time to query a bill, well before it needs paying…and it doesn’t matter which country you are in at the time…:relaxed:

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Hi David. Actually, it’s the other way around. I spend literally 50% of my time in France and the other half in England. My tax demands get sent to my house in England but sometimes (not every year) I am in France during the period my demands land on my doormat in England. Thanks for the suggestion anyway. Keith

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