Formalities on coming to France
We moved to France last year. We have paid taxes ( foncière and habitation ) and now are wondering about formalities to complete for income tax. Can we declare online? Do we have to visit the tax office? We are both retired and only receive a UK state pension paid in the UK. N.S.
The French income tax year is the same as the calendar year. You will need to make a declaration this spring for all your income from the date you arrived in France until the end of 2018.
As this is your first declaration, you must use the paper tax forms. In your case you need the 2042 and the 2047.
You can obtain copies from your local tax office, the Centre des Impôts (not the Trésor Public as this only deals with the collection of payments).
Forms are also available on the tax website impots-gouv.fr from mid-April but not all of the forms are available from the first day that declarations open, some only appear in the following weeks. Sign up for Connexion’s free weekly e-newsletter at our website as we will be updating readers when the forms are available.
There is a deadline by which to submit the declarations, which changes slightly each year, depending on the department where you live.
Once submitted, tax assessments will be issued around August to September.
However, apart from certain kinds of one-off income, there is no tax to pay for the year 2018. The assessment will also confirm what monthly amount of tax will in future be taken out of your bank account as instalments.
Otherwise, tax for 2019 will be payable in one go in autumn 2020. Alternatively, you could create a personal space at impots.gouv.fr now and provide an estimate of your income so as to start paying instalments as soon as possible.
Reader's query answered byHugh MacDonald
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