I have just received my annual tax statement from the French tax authorities, this is always issued in August of each year and relates to tax due on income up to the 31st December of the previous year.
This is the second return that I've made since we moved here and I am pretty pleased that once again I have managed to complete the 8 or so pages in French and had them accepted by the authorities.

I think with even very limited French anyone moving here should with a bit of common sense be able to fill these out plus I have put together some notes on my Living in Brittany website which although fairly basic ie: relating to others in similar positions to ourselves being on old age pensions plus some private pensions and some income from investments should give anyone a good reference to start with.

The tax return is important to us as by proving our income to be below a certain level, and this is the only proof that is accepted, means that we get out Tax D'habitation reduced to zero and a hundred euro reduction on our Tax Fonciere. Tax D'habitation and Tax Fonciere together are the equivalent of  house council tax or rates in the UK.

By doing some reading up on the rules I was also able to reclaim nearly 300 euros of tax that I had paid on a wood burner that we had installed last year, It is worth noting though that this has to be installed by a professional  with a copy of the original paid invoice to enable this. This would also be reclaimable on other eco friendly installations such as cavity or roof insulation, double glazing etc. 

The joys of the French tax system

We have been living here in Brittany now for 9 Months and are really beginning to feel at home here and part of the place. We made the decision, early on, that if we were to live here we had to commit ourselves fully.

We know a few people here that have been here for years but are still running around in right hand drive  UK registered cars, seeing a UK Dr when needed and still on the UK tax system, by doing this I doubt that they have to get involved with the French authorities hardly at all but there are obvious downsides to this, for instance, insurance implications on running a car here, having to go back to the UK to see your Dr etc.

This is not for us, so we have come to that point in the year when we have to fill in our first French tax return, it is also in our own interests to do this as the tax thresholds are higher in France than the UK plus, being on a pension we should get our Tax d'habitation and TV license reduced to zero.

However this is not easy, apart from the fact that there are 2 forms each 4 pages long in French to fill out showing all worldwide income, the forms are not available until late April and have to be handed in by the 31st May.
We went to our local tax office the week before last to collect the forms only to be told that they didn't have them yet but would be available in a week. So this last Thursday a week later we went back only to be told, not yet come back next week or we could drive to the larger tax office 20 mins away to collect them now.
So we decided to drive into Carhaix yesterday to collect them only to be told not yet, next week!
So the time left to complete these is diminishing quickly.
Cest la Vie!