A taxing time at Faz Cottage

[bazfaz]

This morning it was time to tackle our income tax forms. This is a task that no one enjoys and I was not looking forward to it. But from start to finish - going through our bank statements collating figures, exchanging pounds to euros where necessary, finding documents, filling in the form (and rmember this is in French) with Mrs Faz and signing it - it was done in two and a half hours.

Is this a record?

[spindrift]

It seems like record time. Great that you've done it before your visitors arrive

[onlymark]

I've never had to do it. I think when we were in Germany we just downloaded a form, filled it in and sent it off. If we had the paperwork to hand it took about half an hour or so. But I could be wrong.

[auntieannie]

I used to fill my Swiss tax forms within the hour, but then it was just a question of attaching the salary statement from my then employer and copying numbers from one page to the other.

But I cannot imagine filling it for self-employed expats. So, well done!

[Deleted]

I have not received my forms yet, but it now takes me about 10 minutes on the internet -- nothing to sign, no papers to send.

[Deleted]

Actually, for salaried people, the forms arrive already filled out with what your employer has already declared and what the bank has declared for any investments.

All you add are your deductions for charity and any unusual expenses (such as my mother's nursing home).

Obviously, the self-employed have more work to do.

[bazfaz]

The main work is collecting the information for our income from the UK. There are 2 state pensions, one teacher's pensions and two private pensions. These come in month by month, the exchange rate varies, so bank accounts have to be scoured for the figures, then transferred to euros.
As Kerouac says, certain things are already filled in. But we have a lot of stuff to work out.
But it is nothing like as horrendous as ther US tax form. My daughter did a bit of acting there some years ago, tax was deducted at source and then it was a question of getting it back. The form was monstrous (and I hear it is infinitely worse now) By law the IRS had to say how long it took to complete the form and it was something like 12 hours to collect the information and 11 hours to fill in the form. I read today that filling in the forms for American tax takes so long that it is the equivalent of 3 million people working full time for a year.