Thanks Elaine,the Maries office is only about 5 mins walk from here so can pop down and confirm status verbally this week but hope I hear from someone about ht e best way to sort out the tax situation with property earnings from the uk.
To do declare voluntary residency go to the Hotel des Impots and ask for the tax declaration forms for this year, complete them and pay any necessary tax. Easy.
As a rule, taxation is less in France, you declare what you have earned in the UK and they take that into account before they charge you.
You can't choose residency, the French will tell you if they think you are resident and it is totally irrelevant o the number of days you spend here.
Within the EU you are bound only by national and local registration regulation. When you buy a house you are in the system and the more things you do like registering with a doctor, etc, the more you are in. Basically, turn up, move in and pop down to the mairie to get some yellow recycling sacks, or some other spurious excuse, and say you have moved in once and for all. You will be done and dusted with that.
I went to my Mairie and was told that you do not need to register as a resident and that there were no official forms to do this. The secretary knew that we had paid impots as a residence secondaire and suggested that all we needed to do was let them know that the house was now our main residence. Have written to the impots but no response yet.