Don't tell us Debra. We fell into exactly that hole. Not 100 times but enough to shake us... Anybody who asks should not and agents should shut up!
Yep, you are the occupier whether resident or not, I am not entirely sure how they square that so it is not ours to reason why. It is a quarky system and definitions seem to defy reality, but somehow or another they get us. My wife gets all kinds of flak from people when they get some of their bills about which they are not forewarned, at least foreign buyers do that. Some people are incredibly frustrated by the occupier/resident thing particularly.
Either taxe d'habitation and/or taxe foncière will by one means or another catch up with you, particularly the former as the annual residence tax imposed on the occupier of a property in which they were resident on 1 January. The latter would be as the property ownership tax imposed on the owner of a property, whether or not property is actually occupied by them or rented out. In theory there is no escape, active or inactive. Once in either the entire tax regime has your name and address and then there is no escape unless somebody is in an unofficially rented place and working black. Plenty of people get away with that, but then they need local blind eyes which means the maire at least which tends to limit that to locals, family and friends in theory.
It happens when you choose your tax regime, like us when we became AEs, otherwise it works like the people who dodge entry into any regime and live within the black economy for years. As for registering at the mairie, I think it is still done by osmosis rather than any formal system until time for the local taxes when they grab you.
Yes, best left until 1 January at that - after an extended holiday in 2014 that lasted into 2015 when they decided they like France ;-)
As it is, being Christmas, there is nothing to be done until the powers that be have had their holiday closure, hangovers, colds... When in France, do as is done!
I realise he hasn't been here long but technically I thought you had to register for tax from the moment you decided to stay permanently in the country. Shaun might say he hasn't decided that yet but I was only trying to see a way round the issue of getting the forms he needs for a rental. I only arrived in September but will be doing a tax return for 2014, from when I arrived in the country with the intention to stay. However, if the earliest he can get the avis d'impot in any event is July/August even if he does this, it doesn't look like it is going to be soon enough.
We are renting privately at the moment. We're in furnished accommodation which the owner usually lets as a gite. Origninally, he said we could have it until May 2015 but we have negotiated to stay until May 2016, so if Shaun looks for private rentals or even approaches gite owners, he may find someone willing to do something similar.
Right, but he is not going to have a tax bill per se until 2016 is the point, therefore no immediate tax issues to deal with.
Plus, although here he needs to have a permanent residence before he is actually here. Hypothetically, they may see it is not going to work and leave France, then this short stay in rented accommodation would not be of any consequence. Seven weeks, about nine by the end of this year and then the taxable period starting 1 January begins which, assuming he has somewhere to live soon, will then bring a demand in 2016. There is no immediate need to think about tax, just focus on getting somewhere to live.
My OH knows nothing about renting but I asked her a moment ago anyway. She said there is a certain amount of housing pressure in and around Bordeaux and regionally higher prices than even very close by. Either go a bit further away, for instance to Libourne or out of the Gironde entirely, then simply do rounds of agents asking about renting. Whilst most estate agents do not do them, they occasionally know of something a client has and the more cooperative ones will probably tell you who to go to if you tell them that it is an interim measure before buying in their area. Most agents will grasp any remote chance of having a potential buyer by the finger nails at present, so use it.
The problem with that is that the forms for 2014 won't get sent out until March/April and even if you complete them straight away you won't receive the avis d'impot from the tax office before July/August. This is the paper that everybody wants to see.
It's a horribly frustrating situation to be in. The private landlord scenario is probably the only way that Shaun is going to resolve this.
I probably didn't phrase my first reply very well. As Tracy says, although you might not have French tax to pay, you will still need to complete a declaration with your income on to the French authorities, which is the bit of paper the agencies want to see. If you registered now, and back dated to when you arrived, you would complete a declaration for January and so would have the bit of paper for the agencies. One way round the problem perhaps, although I can see it isn't ideal.
It is correct that anyone who lives here must make a French tax declaration, however there is a space on said declaration to declare income that is earned/taxed elsewhere, this will be taken into consideration for your overall tax liability.
Two points though, you need a permanent address to be considered resident and secondly, you declare earnings a year in arrears so impossible to achieve to find a rental right now. Here is the legal list of what you are obliged to show for a rental, also interestingly also a list of what people are not allowed to ask for:
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F1169.xhtml
It seems the agencies are asking for the 'notification of impots' not necessarily that you actually pay taxes here as approximately 50% of the population, me included, do not earn enough to pay taxes. It is proof that you are living here above board and you will be asked endless times for your 'declaration des impots'.
The way forward is as you said, find someone to help you find a private rental, who does not necessarily require insurance. Most agencies insist the proprietor takes out insurance to cover their backsides, not always so in the private sector. As a landlord (living underneath our rental) I check all the papers, then go with my gut instinct to find tenants, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I was recommended to try this man http://www.survivefrance.com/profiles/blogs/please-help for help with admin problems. I haven't used him but he was recommended by the administrators of this site so it may be worth giving him a call. Hope this helps.
Isn't the problem that you should be paying tax in France? My understanding is if you live here for more than 6 months, regardless of where your income is earned, you are considered French resident and have to pay tax here rather than in the UK. So by the time your apartment lease expires, you will have been here 6 months and should be paying tax in France. I don't know anything about how where you pay tax affects your ability to rent but by registering with the tax authorities here, I think you would be doing what you are legally obliged to do and resolving your rental problem at the same time.