Stand your ground over CFE tax bills

READERS with small businesses run under the auto-entrepreneur regime have told us how they have been receiving bills for the business tax CFE - these should not be paid.

As we report in the December edition of Connexion, people on this simple business system, launched in 2009, are exempt again from the cotisation foncière des entreprises (CFE) this year. This is the new tax that has replaced the taxe professionnelle and negotiations are continuing as to whether auto-entrepreneurs should pay it.

Auto-entrepreneurs do not pay CFE in the year of set-up or the following two, however those who started in 2009 have had another reprieve, as stated in this document signed by Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici: Exemption.

One reader this week reported how she received a CFE demand and was told by her tax office she had to pay, only to return to them having read in the Connexion about the exemption, which the tax officials accepted.

If you have had a tax demand, you should visit or write to your tax office for businesses, the service des impôts des entreprises (SIE), asking for dégrèvement (exemption).

It will be agreed as long as you meet the criteria originally required for the full three-year extension, which include not having had a registered business in the same field in the three years before you set up.

To find the nearest stockist to you for the December edition of The Connexion, click here www.findthepressinFrance.com or call Nathalie on 06 40 61 71 97.