Hello everyone,
I have just been remided by my employer that I will have to pay the "taxe d'habitation" on my company flat mid October.
This will amount to about 826€ give or take a few euros. As I am currently on chômage technique and we only worked for 2 months after a long winter, I have zero savings to pay this.
Does anyone know if I can set up a payment plan over the coming months and/or due to the fact that I am on a reduced income, if I can get a rebate?
Many thanks in advance.
Very interesting Jan, thanks... :)
And if no reduction/exemption you could always try using article L.247.
Running a business here, Susan, you simply get used to it and forget that it can be different! It's not the bosses who are bureaucratically obsessed, it's the system that forces them to be! and yes, that's the French way, the State is there to create jobs not private enterprise, that's just meant to follow the State's lead...!
Andrew - run a business here? No, thank you! Apart from being so highly taxed, France must surely be one of the bureaucratically driven economies in the world!! But then if they sacked all the Mini Bureaucratically obsessed bosses, imagine how many more people would be out of a job? I think they deliberately get you into a muddle to justify their existence.
err, parce que ça c'est la France ! Drives you mad at times but France must be one of the highest taxing countries in the world. If you think it's bad as a pensioner, try running a business here...! :-O
Oh dear :-( I really do NOT consider this to be a wealth tax!!! We worked for many years in South Africa, where anything like Social Security, State Pensions etc. simply does not exist. To ensure you have money to live on in your "golden years" you need to scrimp & save and invest during your working life to achieve this. Banks are paying like nothing, interest-wise. There is also the possibility that they will collapse and fold up and disappear with your hard earned money. So what to do? Invest safely and wisely on the Stock Market in boring shares that just sit there and retain their value and even go up a little bit. No, never trade in them as this will definitely attract the eagle eyes of the fiscal hawks/vultures. The money was not earned here - why should we have to pay tax in South Africa AND here? We do after all get zapped with high sales tax, Taxe Foncière, Taxe d'Habitation, the tax on fuel --- ad nauseum. It isn't surprising that Hey Diddle Diddle, They're all on the Fiddle here
Damaris, shameful self-promotion as i created the page, but just fyi the link Paul gave right at the start is on the Useful Links page http://www.survivefrance.com/page/useful-links Always worth looking there first. There's a lot of info there on a wide variety of subjects.
WOW!! I have been complaining about our Tax d'Habitation which costs around €500; we have no facilities such as refuse collection etc. but we do have a big piece of land. So we are not that badly off, then.
Yup, our apartment is in a very small rural town, 6000hab and we pay 800€ for just 85 square metres, daylight robbery.
Here is an extract of the link that Paul sent me...
Si vous n'êtes pas exonéré de taxe d'habitation, vous pouvez peut-être bénéficier d'un dispositif de plafonnement de taxe d'habitation.
Vous pouvez bénéficier d'un plafonnement de taxe d'habitation 2013 si vous remplissez les conditions suivantes :
vous n'avez pas été soumis à l'ISF en 2012,
votre revenu fiscal de référence en 2012 ne dépasse pas certaines limites : 24.043 € pour la 1ère part de quotient familial, majoré de5.617 € pour la 1ère demi-part et de 4.421 € pour les demi-parts supplémentaires.
Le revenu fiscal de référence pris en compte est différent selon votre situation :
si la taxe d'habitation n'est établie qu'à votre nom, les revenus des personnes qui cohabitent avec vous sans faire partie de votre foyer fiscal (par exemple ascendants ou collatéraux) sont pris en compte s'ils dépassent certaines limites,
si la taxe d'habitation est établie au nom de plusieurs personnes n'appartenant pas au même foyer fiscal (par exemple, des concubins), le revenu pris en compte est la somme des revenus de chacun des foyers fiscaux de ces personnes.
Hi Ben,
I have already contacted the tax office as I haven't even received the bill yet but I know it's coming so I am wwating to hear back from them. I have a plan F and a plan G if that doesn't work, (good job there are 26 letters in the alphabet), but it would be far easier to pay in installments.
Andrew has hit the nail on the head. It is a company flat that I have to live in as part of my contract but it is situated in the very centre of Lourdes and has a livable surface of 130sqm... As I am classed as being on chômage techniqe, I am still under contract so can stay here until I get another job or until the 31st December. I am consequently the "gardienne" and overseeing the repair work.
Sadly without gas and therefore heating and having run out of wood, it is bloody damp and cold inside at the moment!!!! ;)
"terribly high"... not really, Susan, it depends where the appartment is ;-)
No, if you're not handicapped, studying, over a certain age and/or a combination of those factors, getting a rebate or an annulment of this tax is quit unlikely. But yes, you can pay that sum in 12 installments:
-via the nets: get out a R.I.B. of your french bank-account and your last tax-form (for your french fiscal number) and go to https://www.telepaiement.dgfip.finances.gouv.fr/stl/satelit.webtemp...
-or go to your local tax-office and demand a form to fill out to the same effect
You had to apply before june 30 to be effective this year so it might be worthwhile to visit the local tax-office and explain the situation to them. They might be befallen with a severe case of sympathy......
Re tax - I know this is not relevant to Damaris' question - but are there any forums I can ask about the HUGE tax bill we received for the first time since being in France. We live from dividends on investment in another country; we are now having to pay over 15% tax, as it is classified as "unearned income". We already pay tax on this at source!
And I do feel sorry for Damaris, although €826 on an apartment seems terribly high? I would suspect that I am paying for several apartments at this price :-)
Thanks Tracy...I am getting hopeful that I'm going to get a reduction too :)
We've always had a reduction on ours solely due to low income, no other criteria necessary.
Given that my reference is 7175....I'm pretty certain that you are right ;)
You're more than welcome , hopefully you may be pleasantly surprised !
I made an enquiry last year and was exempted from Tax D'habitation based solely on my revenues fiscale de référence as the sole criteria. It should be automatic, but like many of these things if you don't ask you don't get !
Paul