I’ve just discovered this super useful website - thanks everyone in advance!!
I’m aware that there have been quite a few discussions on this topic already (that have given some great info) - but I was wondering if anyone knew anything more about the specific question at hand.
I came to Paris in August 2020 to do my masters (2020-2022) and obtained my 5 year post-brexit carte de sejour in 2021. I continued to stay in Paris until April 2023 on part-time work, looking for a full time position. I received a job offer based in London in April 2023, and moved there for this. In my contract, I am working in the Paris office for a week a month, and am looking to return here full time early 2024. I have been paying tax in the UK, and have been residing there since May/June 2023. Will my 5 year carte de sejour continue to be valid, and cover my working rights when I come back to Paris early next year (Jan/Feb)?
Returning back to Paris each month, and the fact the year is valid from August (that’s when I first started residing here) - I shouldn’t have been away for more than six months of the year, but I am legally residing and paying tax in the UK.
I’m super confused to be honest, and cannot find a proper answer anywhere !!
Any help or advice would be most greatly appreciated !!
Thanks so much.
If you have a regular pattern of travelling to the UK to work, and returning to France, then I think you may well be able to argue that you fall under the heading of a frontier worker. So yes you pay tax in the UK but also declare it in your French tax return (which I hope you did in May?). Or indeed a posted worker - is your employment contract a French one?
So that, plus a total period outside France of less than 6 months should be acceptable.
The best people to ask are these who focus on people with WARP cards.
Hi Jane,
Thank you so much for your quick reply! It’s really appreciated.
I was a student for that time, so I have never actually filed taxes in France unfortunately. My current contract is a UK one but this will be transferred to a French contract (as long as it’s legally possible) early next year.
Thanks again!
Erm…students who are over 18 should file a tax return unless attached to their parents’ declaration. Unlikely anyone will come after you if no revenue to pay tax on, but it should have been done, not least as it would have solidified your position as a french resident.
Whether it’s worth going in to your tax office to do a late declaration now I don’t know. Others might?
Do you have foreign (ie non French) bank accounts? They should have been declared too. Here’s a link to les impôts guidance for students
My children when students filed tax returns when they got to the age of 25 as instructed by our accountant. Before that, they were on our family declaration as full time students.
It’s not clear to me when you were last in France. What date did you leave France? And what date will you be moving back to France?
If there’ll be more than 6 months between the date you left and when you’ll return then why not plan a short trip back just for a day. Get your passport stamped upon arriving in France, stay in a hotel for a night and keep the receipts, or do other things you can later use to prove you were back - albeit briefly - in France before the six month deadline expired.
Yeah you should’ve filled a tax return even as a student, but what’s done is done. It could’ve been useful but I wouldn’t worry too much over it. Just make sure you’ve got some other way to demonstrate you were not physically outside France for a period of six months or plus.