I can’t believe I’m back here whinging about this again.
I’m a teacher but managed to fill in the change of address form 13905-04 incorrectly 2 years ago indicating I had a separate business address (I haven’t) but in fact it was my old residence. Since then I have been clobbered with a CFE bill Since then I’ve actually moved again. I have tried to use the change of address form via the portal several times since bit because of a problem with java on my PC I cannot validate it and anyway, you can’t put a date more than 30 days back or so! I printed out form and sent it in. Still no change in my address via portal.
I would like to write to somebody to explain the situation and make it clear that I do not not have a business address and never have had.
it says it can take up to 3 weeks for the change to be processed and they write to you when it has been.
Obviously you need to have the right address recorded for your business, but as for getting the CFE refunded, AFAIK as a teacher you pay CFE regardless of whether you have a separate business address or not. Most MEs don’t have a separate address so their CFE is charged on the address they put on their tax declaration, ie home address as of 1st Jan.
There are a few professions exempt from CFE but I don’t think teaching/training is one of them, unless you know different.
On second thoughts I think you would be better off signing up at http://www.startbusinessinfrance.com/ - it might cost you a bit more but she is 100% reliable and specialises in helping Brits. When you check up more carefully on the other site, although it looked very good at first glance it has some dodgy reviews.
I know that for changes of activity you can’t backdate them which is presumably a security measure, but I don’t know if the same applies to other changes.
The auto entrepreneur.fr site is fine and tbh, in this internet day and age, I wouldn’t recommend paying anyone for advice. We also have a resident SF small business expert (@fabien ) who can almost certainly help you with any individual queries.
But in this case the answer is that as an auto-entrepreneur you sadly have to pay CFE whether or not you have a ‘business’ address and this is in addition to your tax d’habitation. Sorry!
Yes I hasten to add that I totally agree with that in principle and wouldn’t normally suggest paying someone else to do it - but in this case the OP seems to have got into a bit of a “situation” and is having trouble getting himself out of it, and he really does need to get it sorted. Having somebody else’s house registered as your business premises could have implications for them, eg if they decide to set up their own business from that address - and even if they don’t, I don’t think anyone would be best pleased to discover that someone else has appropriated their personal address for a business address, what if the creditors or huissiers start coming round!
Thanks for your advice. However, http://www.lautoentrepreneur.fr/ portal uses java to validate the form and my computer can’t handle java for some reason so I can never get the form validated.