Do I have to file at home while living in France?
It depends on residence, not on address — except for US citizens and green-card holders, for whom the answer is yes regardless of where they live. We settle the residence question first, because every other answer follows from it.
Is there a treaty between my country and France?
Possibly, and the version in force for your year is the one that matters — protocols and multilateral-instrument positions change what a treaty does without changing its name. We check it against the authority rather than a summary. Where no treaty applies, domestic relief takes over.
I own property in France. Where is the rent taxed?
Where the property is. That is close to universal, and it usually arrives as withholding on the gross rent rather than as a return on the profit — which is why the election onto a net basis, where France offers one, is normally the first thing to check. Your home country taxes the same rent and credits what was paid.
How do I file for the year I moved to France?
Usually as two periods rather than one. Up to the date your residence changes you are taxed at home on the ordinary basis; after it, your home system generally narrows to income arising there while France takes over the rest. The difficulty is that both countries pick the date on their own facts, and they do not always pick the same one. We establish the date first, in writing and with the supporting facts recorded, and then prepare both returns from it. Almost everything else about the year of departure follows from that single decision.
Do I stop filing at home once I live in France?
Not automatically, and for many people not at all. Residence rather than address decides it, and a home kept available, a family who stayed, or continuing sources of income at home can leave the obligation open. Even where residence genuinely ends, income arising at home usually remains taxable there on a non-resident basis, and the filing that reports it is a different return from the one you were making before. The question to settle before you go is which of those two positions applies to you, because the answer changes both what is due and when.
What happens to my investments when I stop being resident?
Many systems treat the end of residence as a disposal of certain holdings, so that gains accrued while you lived there are settled before you leave, with particular categories carved out. Property, pension accounts and employer share plans are often treated differently from one another, and a holding that is left alone by one system can be fully caught by another. The work is an inventory: what you hold, where it sits, and what value it carried on the date residence changed. Doing that inventory before departure is far easier than reconstructing it from statements a year later.
Should my employer keep withholding at home once I move?
Often not, but the answer has to be established before payroll is changed rather than after. Once the work is performed in France the collection usually shifts there, and French payroll does most of it, which is why the annual return tends to be a reconciliation. If withholding continues at home as well, you are funding the same liability twice and recovering the difference a year later. Where a social security agreement applies it may hold contributions in one system even though income tax moves. Put both questions to the employer in the same conversation.
Will my spouse's income be counted if she does not move?
It may be looked at, which surprises most people. France works on the household for many purposes, so a spouse's income can enter the French computation even where that spouse is taxed entirely separately at home. The two systems are not describing the same taxpayer, and the credit claim is where that shows. Before the move we set out how each spouse will be treated on each side and what the combined effect is, so the household picture is decided in advance rather than discovered when the first French return is being prepared.
Do I have to tell my home tax office that I am leaving?
Yes in substance, whether or not there is a form with your name on it. The return for the year of departure is what records the change, and it generally needs the date, the reason and the destination, because the date drives the split of the year. Saying nothing and simply not filing is the expensive option: the obligation does not lapse, and a file left open collects interest quietly. Report the move properly, keep the evidence of it, and the whole position becomes straightforward to defend if it is ever questioned.
I work remotely from another country for a company back home — who taxes me?
Usually the country you are physically in, because employment income is generally sourced where the work is done, with your residence country taxing it as well if you are resident there and giving credit. Three things follow: your employer may acquire withholding and social security obligations where you sit, a treaty tie-breaker may be needed if both countries call you resident, and a short trip that becomes a long stay can cross a residence threshold nobody was watching. See remote workers and digital nomads.
What is cross-border tax?
Cross-border tax is what applies when income, assets or people touch more than one tax system at once — someone living in one country and earning in another, a company selling or hiring abroad, a family holding property in a second country. The work is rarely one country's rules applied harder; it is reconciling two sets of rules and claiming the relief that stops the same income being taxed twice at full rates. See what we do.
