Urgent plea for help!!!
To renew CV I have to send avis de situation declarative a l’impot for 2020. We wound up our businesses October 2020 in the UK after deciding to stay. We arrived in May. I did not realise that we needed to do tax returns for 2020 here! We’re currently not working and living on savings. The pandemic has made everything so much more complicated. I understand that I can still submit until the end of this month, anyone got reliable information on that? If need be with a tax advisor/ accountant. HELP!!!
Get in touch with your local tax office. as others have said elsewhere, they are helpful.
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You are only a little bit late, and it is your first year so they are usually very lenient. Accountancy firms have to the end of the month to submit returns for people, but really not worth paying one to do an urgent return for you. Probably cost more than any possible fine. If you could even find one as all the good ones are flat out right now.
If you are living on savings your return will probably be pretty straightforward! (And any fine tiny as it relates to tax due it it sounds you may have 0 to pay.
Take a deep breath, collect up all your financial papers, make a cup of tea and calmly work through the helpful advice Graham post on the tax 2020 post. Then contact your local tax office.
Have you actually got a form? Or do you need to get one?
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Jane, you are a star! As always. I will do that tomorrow. What is the IRS equivalent called? Don’t want to trouble the taxe fonciere people…
So no, I don’t have any forms at all. Been so exhausted withe the CV I am at my wits end with them.
Quite important really. If you scan through the declare tax 2020 topic you will see how you can get an online account which you absolutely need to get access to the online submission. Filling in the online submission is relatively straightforward but you must do it without further delay. There are help sheets in that topic which will guide you through the process. You presumably have maintained UK bank accounts and you must declare those.
Separately, you may need to justify where your living expenses are derived from for the WARP application amongst other things and @toryroo will be your guiding light in that respect.
Bonne chance!
Thank you Graham. I will spend the day tomorrow.
Some tax offices are offering appointments (face to face) and it might be worth taking all your bumpf and talking things through with them.
I’ve always found them very helpful with first-timers… and even old-timers who get into a pickle…
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Centre des finances publiques, prob same place as taxe foncière people.
Pre covid you could usually just walk in, but not sure how it works now. In my experience they are amazingly helpful and will even fill form in for you if you have the info.
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Glad to hear that there is one branch of french officialdom that is helpful! CPAM most certainly are not. I have always found HMRC very helpful and kind as well. Will find out tomorrow…
The tax 2021 topic is a an SF #stayontopic special of some 250 posts which, thanks to members, does not contain very much if anything in the way of chit chat and is full of very useful advice and hints on tackling this very necessary task. Probably most queries arising out of this years’ tax round is covered so it will be a good source of reference for you and well worth a read through.
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How’s you French Gudron?
💐 A big Thank You! 💐
This is to everyone who has helped me from despairing last night. I have applied for an online account via the web today, then rang the tax office and had a nice chap who was helpful. I have a RDV on Monday afternoon. What do I need to take?
I have thought of the following:
ID
All accounts, savings, current, ISA, private pension fund, more ISAs, french account.
They have our number via the TF and TdH.
Other than that, what else do I need? And will I get something to give to CPAM that will satisfy them?
So glad you are getting to speak with some face to face.
Personally, I’d take with you everything you’ve mentioned (in a large suitcase if necessary).
well done !!
No idea about CPAM, but you can mention them to the Tax Folk towards the end of your discussion… they might be able to figure out what CPAM is after once they themselves understand your situation …
Take some bank statements too. If you have any french savings accounts you should have received a tax certificate.
And you last UK tax statement too. Can’t remember when you arrived but will 2020 be a split year?
If you want to really impress them then for each and every account you hold fill in this form
(Which is why Stella suggests a suitcase!)
And then write a list of all income you have received from the date you arrived in France or 1st Jan ‘20 (whichever is later) to 31 Dec ‘20, and if you have any documents that confirm this then even better. The difference in tax years does make it a bit awkward.
Although your tax return is joint, there is declarant 1 and 2. So you need to be able to say which income is whose.
Any charitable donations?
Any environmental improvements?
Once you get the hang of it it will be fine.
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Zero income. Pension funds don’t pay out, interest rate is 0.01% on corrent and savings and s&s ISA have only recently been opened. Living off savings, no income. CPAM have 6 inch of bank statements and can’t be arsed to look at them or send them back. But yeah, I will waste more printer ink…
We are renovating the house, but other than the wood burner installation we are doing everything ourselves. Insulation to wiring , plastering to building staircases. Not sure if any of that qualifies. I will do our final UK self assessments over the weekend and take the printouts with me. They are welcome to have a ‘paper bath’. I shall look at those forms tomorrow. Thank you.
unlikely
Woodburner might if of the approved type - take the invoice with you in the pack of papers.
Another form… Form France-Individual which concerns double taxation. Snce you now have a tax reference number (TRN) you could ask them to stamp this up for you at your meeting for you to send off to HMRC concerning the double taxation treaty. You may be entitled to some tax back from HMRC as you didn’t complete a full year there.
And finally, a quick checklist from HMG.
Hope you like paperwork!
Morning Graham!
If we have no income, surely we won’t be liable for tax? So how would taking all the Point P. invoices help? Surely they won’t pay us?
Morning Gudrun. Thanks for the update; good to know the system works.
Doesn’t quite work like that but where a refund is due, such as for installing an energy saving system, the fisc send the money direct to your account (if they have the details from your bank- RIB) or a cheque - even if you haven’t paid tax in France. For example, we installed a air to air heating system, submitted the invoice to the fisc and were refunded a significant amount in a year we paid no French tax.
The only thing that will be eligible for refund is the bone fide installers invoice so PP invoices won’t really count as you say.
They do! Remarkable but true. We paid no tax last year, but got a refund for environmental credits anyway!
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