This year marks the first time we have to fill in tax returns on our own. Not entirely unaided mind you, because we had a lesson yesterday on how to do it from the lawyer who did it for us last year. In previous years, accountants provided under the terms of la bienheureuse's mutation to France had submitted our returns for us, though it's debatable whether this made things easier or not, as the forms they provided for us to fill in seemed more complicated than the tax forms themselves. Though of course they were in English, so in theory the chances of a faulty tax return were reduced...
France still collects tax in arrears. ie salaries are paid untaxed (though in contrast, social security contributions are removed at source, and the latter take almost as large a slice of our income as income tax), and tax returns for the year only have to be submitted by the end of May the following year. And it's possible to pay the tax for one year in a single lump sum, the deadline for which isn't until the end of September. Though there are also options to pay in 3 installments spread between March and September, or in 10 'monthly' installments. All very complicated. There was talk before the election of moving to a pay as you earn system, as in the UK, but that requires figuring out how to handle the changeover year, notably whether everybody in France gets one year 'tax-free', so it remains to be seen whether it ever happens.
They have made things slightly easier in recent years, at least for people on a regular salary, by introducing 'pré-remplit' tax returns. ie the forms arrive in our letter box, partly filled in with name, address, etc, and one's taxable income for the year, which is provided to the tax authorities by one's employer. All of which makes it fairly simple to fill out. In fact, we really only have one other figure to fill in - total income from bank account interest. And if we do it online we don't even need to provided the documentary evidence that's required if it's done with a paper form. Marvelous. Though of course we do have to keep the documents available in case the authorities decided to check. Our advisor told us this was unlikely though. Ho hum...
