What to do if your tax bill is higher than you expected

The first thing to remember is that the tax office may be right, so be courteous when visiting your local bureau to state your view. It is never a good idea to be on bad terms with your local tax office.

But we see all kinds of errors. The main one has been the application of social charges, commonly to UK rental income, but also to pensions where the payer has a valid S1. In both cases, social charges should not be applied, but often are.

For UK rental income, the social charge is calculated and applied, but there should be another line that offers a credit equal to the amount of the social charge. For pensions, it should not show at all, with no line for a tax credit.

So, if you are very sure that an error has been made, what are the steps? Whatever action you take, do it quickly:

1) Start by emailing your tax office. This is one of the easiest and quickest ways to register your concerns. Your tax bill will have an email for your tax office, which should look like: sip.(town name)@dgfip.finances.gouv.fr

2) Equally simple is the website impots.gouv.fr Log in to your account and select: ‘Effectuer une démarche > faire une réclamation > réclamation sur l’impôt sur le revenu’.

3) If you are a competent French speaker, or know one, a visit to the tax office should get the quickest result. Call or send an email to get an appointment. During busy periods, however, turning up and taking a ticket is often the only way. A face-to-face meeting usually works well and you may get a correction, a dégrèvement then and there.

But what happens if they disagree and state that the demand stands?

1) Send a registered letter. You need the tax demand to be placed formally ‘in contention’ to progress. A formal letter sent recommandée avec accusé de réception, must be formally acknowledged and cannot be ignored. Once you have written confirmation that the demand is in contention, you can take it to the next step.

2) The conciliateur fiscal. This is a department of the same tax office. As long as you know why you should not be paying the tax and lay your argument out clearly, they will review the demand and will often grant the dégrèvement. If this does not work, you must move on to:

3) The Médiateur (the médiateur des ministères économiques et financiers). This is a regional office that has the right to overrule the local tax office.

This process is slow — three to four months is typical — so the next problem is: what to do about the bill, as the deadline for payment will often have passed before a decision is reached.

If you can afford to pay, our advice is often to do so and claim it back. But why? If the bill is in contention with the tax office there is rarely a problem, but once it gets to the mediator, the tax office’s instruction to the French treasury is that the bill is due and they will take it from your bank account — with penalties. These penalties will be reimbursed if a later ruling is in your favour.

But if you pay, there is no nasty shock, and no penalties and you can plan your finances better.

Mediation is slow but thorough. If your claim is rejected at this stage, take professional advice but be absolutely sure that you have a claim before resorting to any legal action.

Do this immediately, as you have limited time in which to take this action.

Keep a comprehensive file of all communication in case you come across the same problem next year. Log dates and times of conversations, with as much detail as possible. If they repeat the same mistake, it is good to know you can remind them of what happened previously.

Robert Kent of Kentingtons explains. www.kentingtons.com