Hi, all. Forgive my ignorance, please. My question is this:
I have a Carte de Séjour notwithstanding the fact that over the past three years I have spent very little time in France. But as a holder of the aforementioned Carte de Séjour am I expected to fill out a French tax return every year?
My income is made in the UK, except for interest from my French “Livret A” investment account.
Thanks in advance for your advice and 'bonne année!
No, if you are not ‘ordinarily resident’ in France there is no obligation to do so.
Ordinarily resident means your centres of interest are here. So income, family and so on. And that you are enrolled in the French Health system or carry comprehensive private health insurance.
If none apply and you are only here for short spells each year and are resident in the UK and covered by the UK health system then you are not ‘ordinarily resident’.
However, depending on what carte de séjour you hold and how long you are outside France each year you could well have invalidated it. It is unlikely anyone would notice but if your card is for a full time resident and you are ever checked then the lack of tax returns could be an issue.
If you don’t need it, why keep it? Just send it back to préfecture.
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Thanks for your advice, Jane.
I was living in France most of the time for a few years and my Carte de Séjour was, during that period, vital to me. I’ll spend most of 2025 in France so the Carte will, again, be a necessary thing for me to have. It’s a treasured possession as it wasn’t easy to obtain.
Regards,
CJ
Is your card one that was issued under the Brexit Withdrawl Agreement, also know as a WARP?
If you are not sure, look at the card, and somewhere on it should me written ‘Art50’.
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Yes, it’s a Withdrawal Agreement carte.
Is it for 5 or 10 years?
In which case, if it’s a 5 year one you have been outside France for over 6 months in any one year it is technically no longer valid.
Coming in and out of France it is unlikely anyone will query this. However bureaucracy is getting increasingly joined up and more checks take place.
Is your house registered as your maison principal on your biens immobilier page? If so the tax office could ask for a contrôle on your tax returns. Or is it registered as a second home and you pay taxe d’habitation? In which case hard to argue you are resident!
No one knows what the procedure will be for renewing WARP cards yet, and it is likely to be light touch. However things like being able to show a tax return for each of the 5 years may become important, or your social security record. You can only be in the social security system of one country at a time so is your registered GP in France or the UK?
And where is your car registered? If you plan to be here for the whole of this year remember you should re-register your car at the 3 month point.
I know the WARP cards seemed a highly prized object at the time when no one knew what would happen. But now there is a pretty simple procedure to get regular visitor visas which allow you to stay non-resident in terms of tax etc. And means you don’t have to worry about complying with requirements on residents.
So you may want to rethink the value of your carte de séjour.
quote=“CJWJ, post:3, topic:50821”]
It’s a treasured possession as it wasn’t easy to obtain.
[/quote]
i don’t understand that! France bent over backwards to mKe it sooo easy.
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Thanks very much for the above. I have just looked at the Carte and it gives me 10 years of continual residence.
I’m at work at the moment so I can’t give your fantastic reply the attention it deserves.
A plus tard mes amis!
Thanks,
CJWJ
Indeed. We should be appreciative of this…
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When you applied for that card you certified that you were a French resident. In fact the 10 year card was only issued to those who had been permanent residents of France for at least 5 years.
From your previous comments, it may be that you made a fraudulent application.
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10 year one means you are ok for the moment so can relax. Such a slim chance of any checks if only using it to cross the border.
But seriously the fines can be pretty nasty for fiscal and social security fraud, so do make sure you never pretend to be a resident in any other way. Or if you do become resident then regularise things.
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This sounds like a re-hash of that little odious squirt Nigel Lawson - did he not want France to give him a residency card yet allow him to continue milking the UK coffers for all he could?
Whatever happened to him?
He died in 2023. 
Not my favourite politician by a long stretch - I bought a flat in London at the height of the property boom of the early 90s - six months later Lawson abolished dual mortgage interest tax relief and the market crashed.
It took me 13 years to get out of negative equity, and I had nothing to show for my years of property ownership when I moved to Turks & Caicos.
Water under the bridge really. I used to get totally incandescent about the British people who acquired WARP cards under false pretences. People living here without paying into the system (like digital nomads) drove me wild.
However I’m much more relaxed now. I personally would not like to live with the cloud over me of perhaps being hauled up for tax fraud, but if others can cope so be it.
As time goes on some of these people will be identified and fined. And at renewal time they may find themselves in a dead end. But their problem, not mine.
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They still drive me mad Jane and will continue to do so. A bit like all the english builders with dubious UK regd vans over her in the old days - but this seems to have stopped now…
France has been more than generous in making us residents welcome and we owe it to them to treat the system with respect. I know there are rules to live abroad - imo far too generous they are. Again France should be thanked.
But there are always some. A bit like all the brexshitters - who were able - running off and getting Irish passports.
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Or simply setting up businesses in the Eurozone so they could have their cake and eat it - I’m looking at you, SIR Jacob Rees-Mordor, you despicable toffee-nosed wombat.
( @toryroo I hope the toffee-nosed wombat is not a real Australian animal, if it is I apologise to it. )
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No, you are all good 
, only 3 types:
- Common wombat (Vombatus ursinus)
- Southern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrons)
- Northern hairy-nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus krefftii)
Did you know they do square poos?
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There are pitfalls for those that did get their WARP with lies.
However, the OP may have done it correctly, and hopefully that is the case.
However, it would be wrong not to point out the dangers of fraudulent applications.
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Totally agree.
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This is the best thread drift that I’ve seen so far.
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