Back in 2016 I wrote my very first article about French taxes. I noted that I had to send two written corrections to the Ministry of Finance by registered mail, asserting (with my French accountant gently nudging me forward) that I, in fact, did not owe taxes to the French on my foreign income. It was only after the second letter (they had tried to get away with simply a reduction in the first reply) that they removed all liability.

Reflecting on that incident now, I remember being surprised that it could have happened. I had only been living in France for about three years at that point. I had the idea that tax returns go into a machine, and that the machine double-checks your own calculations, and then voila, you get your September attestation. This situation turned me on to the idea that sometimes, the machines can screw up, even with something so banal as number-crunching.

Summer 2024 marked a new milestone for me. As is the case for most of my summers in France since 2015, I was away from Paris for the majority of the time. That also meant if “administrative issues” occurred, I probably wouldn’t be able to deal with it until after the rentrée, for various reasons. In this particular case, URSSAF suddenly started pulling out seven times my normal monthly social contribution out of my business bank account.

I say “suddenly” but the truth is that URSSAF sends a “regularization” notice for your social contributions (just as the Ministry of Finance sends one for your personal taxes). The latter normally comes in September but with the new integration of URSSAF with your tax filings, the former came as part of a regular email notice that I ignored. Revenue for my French business had been more or less the same in relation to the previous year so I thought my contributions would remain the same.

Wrong.

For whatever reason, URSSAF had taken my foreign earnings amount, which I have to declare on my French personal return, and decided that all of it was taxable French business income. I only learned that because I sent an email to my personal and business accountants (in September, when I knew everyone would be back) asking what could have happened, and did I miss some new major tax that had been levied on small businesses?

The same accountant who all those years ago helped me stand up to the Ministry of Finance wrote back:

The XXX€ amount represents US source earnings for which you paid social charges in the US. URSSAF should not be using this amount in their calculation.

This happened to one other client and after correspondence with URSSAF by the client’s French accountant, he was able to correct his calculation.

The explanation should be that this is US source income and per the social security tax agreement (Totalization agreement) it is taxed in the US thus exempt from French social charges. 

She helpfully enclosed the link for me to share with URSSAF in correspondence.

I duly forwarded my objection to URSSAF and a couple of weeks later I got a new regularization and a large portion of the overcharge refunded to my bank account for the 2023 number. Now that I’ve gotten clarity on what happened, I’m going to restate estimated numbers for 2024 to URSSAF (quite easy since it’s almost the end of 2024), and once they process that, I will probably get the remaining amount of the overcharge refunded.

Two key takeaways:

• As doli recently noted in her dogged pursuit of the French to pay her back for the locks they broke, it’s about persistence. Most people, even the French, often cave on personal administrative injustices, as confrontation with the authorities is emotionally draining, and life is hard enough. Stay dogged.
• The French bureaucracy is going to make mistakes, even nonsensical ones sometimes. Stay patient and make sure you have good help.

Speaking of good help, for years we have been dogged by the question, “Do you know any good accountants?” My accountant (the one referred to in this story) stopped taking new clients in 2018 so I’ve not been very helpful in recent years other than to send links to some accountants we had found online but had not gotten to know. But thankfully, we now have a resource. You’ll see short interviews done with these firms in the weeks ahead to give you a bit more context. When you reach out to them, let them know The American in Paris sent you. It’s one more way you can support our work. 🙂

If you’d like a laugh from a fellow immigrant, Tatty Macleod, who understands the pain of URSSAF, click here.

Photo by George Becker.

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This story also appeared on Medium.