As at Monday 16th April, 2018.
The impôt sur la fortune immobiière: the new French Wealth Tax
on immovables and immovable property holding entities.
The first point is to check whether indirectly, you own a direct
or an indirect interest in French immovable property through an
investment in a company, whether French or otherwise. If so, this
will be of interest to you.
If so, you then need to check the market value of the immovable
asset at 1st January of this year. If it is over €1,300,000 then
you need to take advice and probably action. The rules as to
allowability of loans used to acquire the property has changed
significantly from the previous Wealth Tax (ISF).
The IFI tax returns for French residents are now "available" on
line, at last for those who are able to find them. Use the top
search pane on www.impots.gouv.fr.
For the moment, not even the income tax returns containing the
IFI lines are available: n° 2042-IFI.
The administration have already confirmed that there will only
be one declaration, not two sets, and that those resident taxpâyers
who filed an ISF return last year will automatically receive their
new form either through the post, or if they used the on-line
facility, it will be automatically carried to their "personal
space". Those who have never filed for ISF will have to embark on
the French on-line filing system.
The on line reference for the French residents' form is n°
2042-IFI.
There is to be a non-resident form, which is to be used where
the non-resident has no other French source income: n°
2042-IFI-COV. However, there is no link available yet for
that form on the website, at present. The French notion of
accessibility for those used to a different IT culture and
linguisitic compatibility is not the same as elsewhere.
The link to the announcement can be found at
https://www.impots.gouv.fr/portail/particulier/questions/comment-declarer-limpot-sur-la-fortune-immobiliere-ifi
.
So at today's date, form n° 2042-IFI-COV is not yet actually
available on the website, which appears to have got ahead of
itself.
Further comments will be forthcoming once the declaration and
notices are available.
Trustees, the 2181 trust2 and IFI:
There has not yet been any sign of the corresponding trustee
form replacing the old 2181 Trust2.
Please contact Peter for further information and advice.