News update - The proposed tax on holiday homes in France has been scrapped by the French government. The decision to scrap the tax was taken, we understand, over the weekend at a meeting between President Nicolas Sarkozy and his Minister, François Baroin.
The government had clearly not thought through very well. It certainly smacked of a last minute concept, thrown into the mix of the finance bill during its passage through parliament in order to help make the sums add up on the reduction in the wealth tax.
Many commentators were of the opinion that the new tax would have infringed EU regulations, and was also contrary to a number of taxation treaties France has in place with other countries.
According to the French government, 363,000 owners would have been liable for the tax, of which around half would have been UK citizens.
There was a huge misunderstanding about just how much it would cost. We received many enquiries ! In fact the impact was going to have been pretty small. For the vast majority of those affected by it, the tax was never going to cost more than a few hundred euros a year.
The government had clearly not thought through very well. It certainly smacked of a last minute concept, thrown into the mix of the finance bill during its passage through parliament in order to help make the sums add up on the reduction in the wealth tax.
Many commentators were of the opinion that the new tax would have infringed EU regulations, and was also contrary to a number of taxation treaties France has in place with other countries.
According to the French government, 363,000 owners would have been liable for the tax, of which around half would have been UK citizens.
There was a huge misunderstanding about just how much it would cost. We received many enquiries ! In fact the impact was going to have been pretty small. For the vast majority of those affected by it, the tax was never going to cost more than a few hundred euros a year.
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