I thought it was no longer allowed to open a UK bank account if you live in the EU. Have I missed an opportunity to put my money into a higher interest rate bank? It seems from your posts, that both you and Larkswood live here permanently.
I have an offshore account which was opened before leaving the UK but would like the option of another bank to save in.
Following on (a great deal later) from my earlier gripe about being unable to set up monthly payments of my tax instead of having a big bill at the end of the year, I had another go.
In my naivity, I thought that, now it was January, they would finally let me set up monthly payments. I tried to alter the amounts (currently set to zero) and was told I couldnât do that as they were zero.
I then tried the âincome is augmented so I need to up the amountsâ section and that wanted an estimate for 2024 income as well as the figures that would go in for my 2023 income on the 2024 declaration. At the end of a full day of calculations and filling in forms, they still said I couldnât do it because it was more (or it could have been less) than 5% bigger than it otherwise would have been. SighâŠ
Iâve abandoned this and sent them a message. However, since the last twice I have tried to amend stuff via messages have both failed spectacularly (while being declared as completed) I think I may have to admit defeat and carry on paying at the end of the year.
Has anyone else actually succeeded in changing the prelevement rate from zero to anything else at all? If so, please shareâŠ
We have only managed to set up prĂ©levements for our French earned income, and not for anything else. Not really tried thoâ, although for some reason that I have forgotten they always credit us with a huge amount in January so that basically pays the tax in October!
Thatâs interesting,Jane. A few years back I was paying monthly on my UK pension but for some reason that stopped and I canât restart it. Iâll see whether I get anywhere with the local tax office⊠perhaps I should just turn up and camp on their doorstep 
I think this has been suggested before, but why donât you pay monthly into an interest-earning account, so after a year you can pay the tax in one go? The tax authorities wonât credit you with any interest.
Hi Strudball did you get the answer you required re uk rental & double tax return?
When we first moved over all I had was uk rental income, OH pensions. I do a uk tax return declaring gross minus claimable fees refurbishments etc giving me a net figure. This obviuosly is April to March
For france I created my own spreadsheet with the same principle for Jan - Dec, thus declaring the net income i contribute to the household. If ever challenged i supply invoices of rental, building maintenance fees and any other expenses paid. The confirmation invoice from when i do my currency exchange (mostly quaterly). You file an additional page for the rental with the final figures on the main sheet.
The only headache i have now is when they modify the pages and âmy guideâ fails me!
The only issue to be aware of which an accountant alerted me to is that allowable expenses on rental income in UK are not the same as in France. We keep our headings extremely broadâŠ.
Just to say, I was advised a long time ago to simply carry the figures over from my UK tax return to the French one but that only really works if youâre declaring in France under the micro foncier arrangement.
Once our rental income exceeded the threshold above which you are required to declare under the ârĂ©elâ system, we ran into problems because some of the repairs covered by the UK tax year had occurred in Jan, Feb or March of that UK tax year. So outside the French tax year ending 31 December.
The online tax form requires us to enter the date of said repairs and would not let us enter a date after 31 December of the tax year in question.
So, long story short, I now report one set of figures for the UK return and a different set for the French return.
Exactly, my letting agent provides me with 2 annual statements, one for the French tax year and one for the UK tax year. Yes they are different just like the 2 countries tax systems are different so no piont in trying to be smart by incorporating the systems yourself.
What you can claim in one countries tax year may well be different to the claim in the others tax year but it all sorts itself out eventually.
Keep the records from both countries separate and be able to produce them as proof if required.
French and UK tax collectors are fully aware that their tax year and systems are different so no piont in overthinking your foot in both camps situation. Be honest with your submissions and all will be well.
You have a very well trained letting agent!
To be honest, I donât fret too much about which expenses are deductible in France and pretty much replicate what I claim in the UK.
I doubt they look at them very closely given that the income is not liable to tax or prélÚvements sociaux in France and really just needs to be reported so they can determine whether it pushes you into a higher tax bracket.
I decided to use that method and am over the 15K (?) limit though below after expenses. I did the 2047 - separated out the UK expenses into two types - administration (everything except repairs) - box 221, repairs - box 224, included the 20⏠undocumented expenses allowance in box 222.
I didnât include any regimes particulier - I couldnât think of Amy that might apply to a foreign property?.
UK interest payments on the mortgage were entered in box 250.
The result popped up in box 420, carried over to box 4BA on the main return and also 4BL to exempt the income.
Presume that was your experience also?
I didnât get prompted for any date for repairs. I see there was a button labelled âdetailâ but I donât think I clicked on it.
If forced to in future, well, the correct approach is obviously to revert to two sets of accounts as you did, but it might be satisfactory to the authorities just to report the single UK expenses figure in the admin box?
Hi Larkswood
Am out cycling and canât check but it sounds to me like youâve been declaring UK rental income under the micro foncier regime, as we used to do.
Canât recall offhand whether itâs the gross or the net income that counts when determining whether you have to use the « rĂ©el » regime, ie where you declare actual expenditure.
Certainly with the réel system we had no choice but to itemize everything in considerable detail (including dates of any work carried out).
And all those dates had to fall within the relevant French tax year Jan to Dec.
Otherwise the form wouldnât accept them.
Will check later which forms & boxes I used and get back to you.
Although maybe you HAVE been using the rĂ©el system and Iâve been making life unnecessarily complicated for myself by ticking some «DĂ©tail» box that I didnât have to!
Will checkâŠ
Thanks for looking, hope you have an enjoyable cycle! Iâm pretty sure itâs gross which is the cut-off, if net, then Iâve made a whole lot of unnecessary effort⊠
OK Iâm back in the flat and looking at printouts of last yearâs French tax return.
I declared the UK rental income under the ârĂ©gime du rĂ©elâ and that required me to first declare them in form No 2044.
We have 2 rentals and they had to be declared in form 2044 separately.
For each property I completed boxes
211 (loyers bruts encaissés),
215 (Total des recettes) ,
221 (frais dâadministration et de gestion),
222 (autres frais de gestion),
223 (primes dâassurance),
224 (dĂ©penses de rĂ©paration, dâentretien et dâamĂ©lioration),
227 (taxes fonciĂšres),
240 (total des frais et charges),
261 (Ligne 215 - ligne 240 - ligne 250) and
263 (bénéfice ou déficit).
In connection with Ligne 224, I had to itemise the expenditure (nature des travaux, nom et adresse des entrepreneurs, date du paiement, montant).
Perhaps I didnât need to do this. Presumably I responded to some prompt but canât remember what shape and form it took!
So I did all this for both properties and the form generated a total ârecettesâ figure (E), a total âfraisâ figure (F) and, finally, a total profit figure (bĂ©nĂ©fice ou dĂ©ficit) (I)
That was form 2044 done & dusted.
Then in Form 2047, I completed section 6, entering the total profit figure (I) under ârevenu avant dĂ©duction de lâimpĂŽt Ă©trangerâ
I donât think the figure was carried over automatically from form 2044 - am pretty sure I entered it.
Then, in the main tax form 2042, that same total profit figure appears under:
4BA
4BL
and 8TK
I think I need a drink.
P.S. Every year I also include a very polite reminder under Mention Expresse to the effect that under the bilateral tax treaty, UK rental income is not liable to tax or social charges in France
Ah, on closer inspection, box 224 has a note âremplir egalement la rubrique 400â
I didnât do that!
PS Is our consensus the 15K âreelâ regime trigger is on 'gross income?
Screenshot of rubrique 400 which I blissfully ignoredâŠ
Thatâs why I pay a guy to do my taxâŠnot my idea of relaxing retirement to spend time doing such things. Just really canât be bothered.
Just to confirm - the threshold last year beyond which you must declare the actual expenses (rĂ©gime du rĂ©el) was âŹ15 000 GROSS.
Is he any good?
Our tax affairs are very straightforward right now but once I retire theyâre going to get horribly complicated.
