Tax d'habitation and tax fonciere

Hi - this is really up to the tax people to decide. Your mother should visit the tax office and get this matter sorted out. Now that the facts are known to the tax office they will decide the next steps - but better to get it cleared up now rather than get into a more complicated/more expensive situation in 2011 or beyond.

In my dealings with the tax people here they have been friendly and helpful. But one major piece of advice - you mother must never, ever say it was their fault. She doesn't have to carry the can, but she can use softer words like misunderstanding. Did the previous owner have 3 houses registered?

There is more to it than just the number of bedrooms - there are things like the French TV licence to take into consideration - to be paid 3 times if there are TVs in 3 houses.

Your mother should go to the tax office with as much paperwork as she can carry - and hope to get a sympathetic hearing.

hi thanks for the advice. As far as I know mum just took over paying the tax in accordance to the info the previous owner had given. I suppose she would be able to tell the tax office that she genuinely thought that she was paying the correct amount as this was what the seller told her to pay.
I just hope its not going to be a huge bill as they have a very small income from the lettings.

Hello again - The seller is responsible for the local taxes, but if he sells mid-year he can ask the buyer to pay pro-rata for the number of months she was the owner of that house during the year. Was this stated in the purchase contract?

Did your mother see any local tax paperwork from him? How many houses did he pay for in the past? Does your mother have his new address? Was he French? They can be quite good at circumventing regulations.

What about the paperwork from the notaire when the houses were purchased? Did this mention 2 or 3 houses? If it mentions 3, then presumably the tax office is at fault. If it mentions 2, then the fault may be with the town hall.

But as I said yesterday, blaming other parties can be counter-productive in these situations.

Poor weather around France today - a good day for digging out and reading all the paperwork from the sale and planning the next course of action.

Good luck.