Hi

I have been working in Basel and living over the border in France for over a year but am not sure where or how I should be paying my income tax. I have recently received a demand for a declaration of revenues by the French Tax authorities. Could anyone throw some light on the subject please?

Hi

I'm doing the same and have just had to pay my first tax bill for the year 2007. Normally you have to declare your income for the previous calendar year by the end of May and then you get a bill to be paid in September.

Go to www.impots.gouv.fr and download the forms 2047 and 2042. Once you have filled in the forms take them to the local tax office.

It can be a bit confusing to fill them in but I got some help from here:

http://www.mfe.org/forums/forum_post...D=221423&PN=10

There's lots of info about French taxes on the forum at totalfrance.com but doesn't include anything about working in Switzerland.

Hope this helps
Richard

Hi, sorry to open up this older thread again, but I have searched & not found the info I was looking for (I appreciate it could just be my inability to search properly....)

Both my OH & I have been fortunate to get jobs in Basel. We had intended to live in France, as we speak French. However, I am now getting very concerned about the income tax. I have been doing some considerable reading, but wondered if anyone has any experience they could share.

Both my OH and I will each be earning low-six figure sums in Switzerland (and please don't blast me for saying that, I am not showing off, but I think it is key to the income tax question). I am now becoming concerned that we will be taxed to hell in France, and would be better off living in Switzerland.

Does anyone have a view on this? Any help appreciated.

Sorry, may have broken forum convention - should I have said 'hello' first as I'm a newbie...

its quite involved i think but here are some options i think might be worth bringing up with a tax lawyer or adviser:

1.) live in France and pay taxes in france. probably much higher deductions there. not sure how this works with the bi-lateral tax agreement. you still may have taxes deducted at source in CH

2.) you could live in France and have an L,G, or B permit (if you have a temporary residence in CH). Your employer would deduct all your taxes from source each month. if you earn more than 120CHF a year you might have to make a tax return in CH. the benefits of this is that a lot of your travel and other things would be tax deductible, interest on mortgage etc.

3.) there is a 'weekend' international worker option (not sure of the name, but it boils down to that) where you predominately live in France but work in CH. here your taxes are deducted at source again but you do not have to make a tax return here in CH because your actual 'worldly' assets are in France. a part from the bear minimum you need to declare in france for tax there the salary deductions are already taken care of.


I would suggest you get a tax adviser with cross border experience, spend some serious time going through the numbers from the French and CH side. You can download the Basel software and play with the numbers as if you were living in CH, etc. But also take account of things like health insurance, permits need to be obtained and the likes that would add cost to being in CH.

You can find the French income tax simulator here:
http://www3.finances.gouv.fr/calcul_impot/2008/

and the Swiss one here:
http://www.estv.admin.ch/e/dienstlei...uerrechner.htm

If you live in France you will have such things as AHV/ALV pension, social contributions deducted in Switzerland and you will pay income tax plus taxe d'habitation/taxe fonciere based on a yearly declaration (one lump sum in the second year and 3 installments after that). You also have to take out private medical insurance cover. If you earn any interest from foreign bank accounts you will be taxed at your highest rate on them and pay extra by way of social contributions in France.

One thing to consider is that Switzerland tends to favour couples where only one person is working. For example, your total income is added together and your tax band is based on that figure so you can hit a higher band sooner than in France. In France the total income is added together and divided by the number of people in the household to calculate the tax band.

In France you are allowed to earn 10% of your income before it is taxed (that's after the €5k tax free allowance). This is supposed to be for your travel and lunch expenses for work.

To add to what bill_door said, I have a G permit which stipulates that I return to France at least once a week (I return every day). I only have AHV/ALV, pension and CH social contribution deducted at source (but I don't earn 120k). The French don't consider these to be taxes so your tax bill in France will not be reduced by the amount you have paid to the Swiss.

That's a few ideas, hope it's of some use. A tax adviser may well save you time because it takes a while to get your head round all this stuff. Living costs will probably be higher in CH so it complicates things.

Thank you both so much for your full and detailed answers. I really do appreciate the time you spent. Looks like I had better contact a tax lawyer pretty damn quick! Stupidly, I had never considered it could be so complicated!

You're welcome!

I can also mention that if you live in France then you are allowed to pay for your medical insurance out of pre-tax earnings. In addition, you don't pay towards the French health system since it is compulsory to either take out private medical insurance (which most people do) or join the Swiss healthcare system when working in Switzerland.