Good Morning! I don't know whether there is a discussion on this subject already open.... I have looked but couldn't find one. We have received a rather hefty Tax bill this year, and couldn't understand why? After a visit to the regional Tax Office, it seems that this year there is a 15%+ on what is classified as "unearned income".
We do not receive any pensions as we lived in a country with no social security set ups. We therefore invested money on the stock market to provide for our old age and retirement. The dividends and interest received are now classified differently from a salary so we have been hit with this darned big sum..... Oh - we also have to pay tax on this at source, in the country we receive the money from. I am really fed up about this.
Hello Ben: It kind of pi***s me off that if this amount had been the result of an "earned" income, there would have been no tax applicable at all as it is below the ceiling. Not only is it now taxable with this new rip-off, but taxable at a far higher rate than would be the case unless we were earning a small fortune. We worked in South Africa; there should be an agreement to avoid double taxation. I am going to write to them today to see if I can get them to reverse the assessment.
This is a result of the 2013 revision of the tax-system. The current government (sic) wants to align the taxation on these "unearned incomes" with those of earned incomes. They indeed do not take into account taxes paid at the origin of the dividends. I don't know which country you lived in, but maybe there's a tax agreement between them and France in order to avoid a double taxation and providing a solution for your case?