I pay Taxe d'Habitation and Taxe Fonciere over ten months with and eleventh balancing month.
I declared some minor works reroofing my barn and putting in two Velux window- result increase in Tax! I had to ask permission for the windows as we are in a National Park. However most of the locals don't ask permission and just do what they want unofficially. They use plastic windows and doors which are theoretically banned and even the Marie is guilty in this respect. You are not even allowed to paint the outside of any rendered house anything other than a limited palette of white and off whites, but the Marie is vivid Green, the Pharmacie purple, the retired doctor's bright yellow. You are meant to use zinc rainwater goods but most use plastic. Plastic fences, gates etc abound. The farmers put up a range of hideous building and leave the old ones, including asbestos, just to fall down. Even flat roofs are now arriving in what was meant to be only traditionally 45 degree roofed villages. Ho hum!
Thanks Thea,
This looks like good news....
Thanks for the link Thea, very useful :)
Hi Hilary,
CFE tax is a fairly new addition to the tax for professionals, it replaces the taxe professionelle and in fact can be a better deal for some as it isn't calculated in the same way.
CFE is based on your local tax scale, what you fill in on the H1 form ( that's where we we too honest I'm afraid) which is in fact used to calculate taxe foncière and what space you use for your business, there is a minimum but it can be quite minimal. My husband pays 395 euros for a shop in a busy town, 25m2 interior and an area outside about equivalent that he uses in the summer for outdoor stuff so it really depends on your business, area used and your local tax system. There is quite a good page showing who can apply not to pay. A good example are teachers it would seem
"Les professeurs de lettres, sciences et arts d'agrément s'ils ne possèdent pas d'établissement ouvert au public." so this could be you Hilary?
See: http://www.apce.com/pid11655/les-exonerations-de-cfe.html?espace=1 There are reductions too for some professions
Hello,
CFE....This is obviously about some degree of working from home...Something that I am not doing on a commercial basis yet, but I am thinking about this in relation to Art & TEFL. I confess it's an area that I need to be educated in as I am on a very tight budget I am nervous of getting into a financial mess due to the 'upfront charges' that I have heard are levied in France....
Can anyone point me in the direction of a good resource to help clarify things ?
I also wondered whether it is possible/better, to somehow have the business ide of things registered in the UK or even offshore ..(I know that big businesses know how to 'work it')....and what happens about access to French Healthcare if one is self-employed ?
Thanks Tim, I guess I will get it too then :)
Hi Rachael, it just arrived as two copies of the forms for myself and my wife yesterday, No bill.
I will get hit with the CFE next year. If I have a form to fill out regarding my space, I'm going to declare 750 square centimetres. I have a VERY small laptop and I plan on losing weight ;-)
Yes, Tim, actually I have now set up monthly installments for next year, but wanted to pay in installements for this year too, bearing in mind it was such short notice and I had no idea of the amount beforehand ...or even that it was going to be happening. It was only thanks to SFN that I got the jist. I tend to bury my head in the sand over a lot of stuff hoping it will just go away :)
I think you can setup CFE for monthly installments (IIRC one of the links Clare Smith put up mentioned it.)
But like most things here, you have to setup a year in advance so they can collect the installments base on the previous amount (which was zero). Thus like impots won't be able to do it, as their heads will explode with a divide by zero error and you'll get socked with a great big bill.
Vive la DPRF!
Yes each commune varies a lot. I was told by the tax office to contact the Mairie for an explanation (which I will do). I saw on the form that there was a minimum threshold of 1,000 Euros and that you pay 33% of that. so depends on what your communes threshold is. However, I have never seen something asking me to input my work space dimensions....not that I really read the paper work anyway ;-) ....
A funny story : when I went to the tax office I asked them if I could pay in installements, the guy said "yes sure, no problems, how many installements would you like to pay in?" I said "well the maximum possible please" and he said...(wait for it....) "the maximum is two"...........I had to bite my tongue obviously.....so why did he bother to ask :0). LOL... Ho hum..
When I questioned the amount I was told that there was a minimum amount based on a corner of a kitchen table for me about 450€ but it depends on your commune.
I didn't get a form to fill in? Patrick, did it come with the actual bill please? I work on a very drafty landing in a space of about 3m X 2!!
Hi,
CFE: Declare as little as you possibly can, we were very honest with our business area and have been seriously hit by a huge CFE tax bill ( over 2,500 euros), the way in which they calculate it is very obscure.
Taxe foncière: Our taxe foncière trebled this year, from 900€ to 2,400€. When we went to the tax department they just shrugged their shoulders and said it was due to improvements we had made so you are hit twice really - once for investing money into the property and then you are taxed every year on this. The agent who deals with professionals at our tax office said we had been lucky that they had only done the adjustment this year and not last year...
Vive la France
It wont give you any reduction on your taxe fonciere; I think I declared a desk space of about 3 square metres, hubby as well even though he sometimes cuts wood in our garage; Don't think they actually read it.