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Does anyone know if the Taxe Foncieres notifications went out late this year. ?
We have just received our notification.The envelope was dated 6th Dec and the deadline for payment was 18th November. ie : the notification was sent almost 3 weeks after the deadline. Add to this the time it takes for the letter to arrive in the UK.

On the notification is a fine for late payment of 10%

We have received no other notifications except the Taxe D'habitation, which we have already paid.

Does anyone know if there is an English speaking direct phone line at the Tax office in Lille as it may be quicker to deal with this by phone.

Has anyone else experienced the same problems. ?
Thanks

Cant help you with the answer to that as we got ours a while back, but here are some model letters to help you sort it by post or email.

http://www.pratique.fr/lettre-demande-s ... ement.html

http://www.documentissime.fr/modeles-de ... -1494.html

it sounds like your first letter went awol. (it should have arrived in October).
I imagine that you will be able to argue that this was not your fault and have the 10% 'fine' removed.

Hi both,

Thank you for your replies.

The standard letters don't seem apply to us Kate so without a lot of changes
I may have to consider having one translated to be able to send.



Montgolfiere----I think you are probably correct as no previous payment request arrived in October but the Taxe d'habitation did arrive which we promptly paid.

I am hoping if I send a letter they will accept the situation with the non arrival of the first request and notice that we have never failed to pay either of the Taxes previously.

Do you know if I would need to send the letter to the Argeles office or to Lille ?
Do you think the Argeles office will have the authority to make a decision.

Thanks

montgolfiere wrote:it sounds like your first letter went awol. (it should have arrived in October).
I imagine that you will be able to argue that this was not your fault and have the 10% 'fine' removed.

good luck with that, I had that happen to a client a couple of years ago, they had moved house in uk and informed les impots ( they had received tax hab) the foncier did the tour and arrived late, they would not accept responsibility.

maybe we have a 'sympathetic' local Tax office...but we have always had a 'fair hearing'. We have always approched them rather than 'Head Office'.

we definitely have mr Grumpy, good luck and well done if you succeed.

ok guys---being ever the optimist and with the aid of Google translate, I have have sent off an email to explain the situation.

Hopefully it will reach someone who is understanding and in the festive spirit and will consider my case favourably.

Will update on what happens.

ours arrived in the UK only just before the payment was due. I paid online so hopefully it was OK. In the future I'll just look online as you can see whats due before the letter arrives. I was surprised how easy it was online, even with my very poor french!

where did you send the email? to the tax office or the tresor public? my son didn't get his one year and so was late paying it, i went in to he tresor public as it is them who are able to make the decision. i just had to put in writing why he had not paid it in time and could they Knock off the 10% fee. Was accepted no problem . This was tresor public in Elne , the one in cabestany does the same. I am not sure they will reply to an email, France is not very good when it comes to emails , better to send in writing

I'm a fan of the online system too. It's very straightforward, plus I like the fact that you whenever you 'pay', the money is only debited from the French bank account 7 days after the specified payment date.

(Looking back, my Fonciere bill arrived in the UK mid-september.)

Helen wrote:I'm a fan of the online system too. It's very straightforward, plus I like the fact that you whenever you 'pay', the money is only debited from the French bank account 7 days after the specified payment date.

(Looking back, my Fonciere bill arrived in the UK mid-september.)

I have paid my taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation by direct debit (prélèvement) for the last 25 years. Apart from the fact that you have to do absolutely nothing, apart from the initial set-up, it's rather satisfying to get a tax bill which has a completely blank payment area. I can see why you might pay by instalments (also by prélèvement), but simply waiting for the bill to come, or not, is just asking for trouble.

Just a quick update.

I have sent an email to the email address on the Taxe fonciere invoice.

This was 2 days ago.

1. As it an official government email address , should I have had an automatic receipt response. ?

2. Is is reasonable to expect a response by now. (48 hours )

I don't want the matter drag on with possible further complications by someone denying that I have sent any correspondence and time to send anything in the post to beat the Christmas post deadlines is really close.

Any advice please ?

Thanks

as i said before, France is way behind when it comes to replying to emails. you need to pay the actual tax fonciere to the tresor public and join a letter explaining that you did not pay it before because you did not receive the letter. you ask for une remise exceptionnelle of the 10%. If you wait for a reply to the email before paying at least the original bill then you might end up with a bigger fine and they will deny all knowledge of an email. If you put the letter in the same envelope as the check and send to tresor public that you depend off then it is a bit like sending a recorded letter as if they cash the check it means they read the letter

I would actually go personally to your Tresor Public and explain. I did this at Argeles for a friend, and they waived the 10%

I did the same at Villefranche

Hi Sue and Paul,

Going to the office in Argeles may be a bit difficult as we are in the UK.

Have taken Tia's advice and have sent a cheque for the original amount ( minus the fine ) along with a copy of my original email by recorded post from the UK so they have to sign for it.

Not sure why they bother to put an email address on the invoice if they have no intention of replying to emails or even have a confirmation system in place to say the email has even arrived. This would be a given in the UK with most government departments and even most large businesses.

I shall update the posting when I have some news of how things progressed.