Horrified by social charges bill
I sold my French [holiday] farmhouse and was horrified to be charged €17,000 in ‘social taxes’. I had the farmhouse for 25 years and did not have to pay capital gains tax because of owning it for more than 22 years. In any case, after restoration work I broke even so there was no capital gain. Could I appeal? T.E.
One problem here is that the capital gains tax rules exempt property from the tax if owned for 22 years or more but the social charges exemption applies after 30 years.
The fact that France levies social charges on non-residents’ gains has been controversial as they were linked to funding of the French social security system, which non-residents do not benefit from. As of last year however the state says it has changed the way the money raised is used.
As to whether or not you should appeal, it seems likely you should if you were charged too much, though not being is possession of all of the facts about the sale it is difficult to confirm this. One issue is that if calculation was done by a notaire, the general attitude of the tax authorities is that no refund will be given since the notaire is a civil servant and assumed to know what he or she is doing and in signing the forms provided by the notaire you accepted what the notaire had done and the resulting charges.
This said, if there was no gain the charge seems excessive, because capital gains tax and social charges are only supposed to be levied on net gains, taking into account certain renovations if they can be proved with receipts (or otherwise a set 15% on top of the purchase price). You should also check the correct (55%) reduction was applied to any gain due to 25 years’ of ownership.
