Paying tax in France

If you have been in France for more than 183 days in a Calendar year you may be liable to pay tax in France.

The French tax department didn't send me any papers asking me to pay tax, I had to go and let them know I existed first. I had to gather a list of all my accounts and their balances as of the 31st December the year before. Additionally I compiled a page with all my income from Interest and Salary wherever in the world it was earned. Then I went to the tax office and told them I needed help declaring my taxes. They were very helpful.

TIP: If you have earned money in another currency, don't bother converting the amount into Euros until you get to the tax office because they have their own published conversion rate.

The French tax year follows the calendar year.

Apparently there are other rules that determine French tax liability. Read about them here.

First concepts

Moving to a foreign country is not easy.

When I was 16 my family moved to New Zealand. It cost Dad money to fly 7 of us there, ship our things and then live frugally whilst he worked at less than ideal local jobs until he was established.

Moving to France was similar for me when I came from the Southern Hemisphere.

For the first year, everything I had to do was difficult - from getting my car washed to buying food.

Language was one cause. Associate with native French speakers of the local language. They like your accent, they don't expect you to get things right. Once you realise that you will relax when dealing with people that deliberately talk fast because they are afraid they will have to use their rusty primary school English.

Familiarity with the system is the other cause. France seems to expect that you will know what to do when you get here, but you won't know. Perhaps French people are born knowing that you have to park your car in the car wash before you put the money in, but if you are like me you won't know that. You are going to make mistakes - but you need only make them once.

Trust me - it does get easier.

Introduction

You can find many pages that tell you about 'Moving to France', 'Life in France' and so on. When I first moved here, though I found that much of the information left me more scared than informed.

Getting into the system in France - as an immigrant is the toughest part. Once you get that over with, the French Social system is quite comprehensive, and things will become more natural over time.

I'm going to try - by means of this site - to convey some lessons I learned an conclusions I drew. It will be up to you to decided whether or not I have the right impression and whether or not things that worked for me will work for you.