Mikael Artamonoff, a farmer near Marmande (Lot and Garonne), expressed his frustration with the tax demands he received recently for Income Tax, Taxe d'habitation and Taxe fonciere. Most readers will be familiar with these end of year adjustments (or full year bills if you dont pay by instalments) which seem to fall at the time when you most need extra cash. For Mikael his new business started in late 2013 but he received a demand for a full year's trading as well as the other taxes.
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| pic: Getty images |
As he seemed unable to get a response to what was a mistake he went down to the tax office with a llama, a cow and two goats. He took a ticket and waited his turn, but was a bit put out when, after his animals had climbed the stairs, the director refused to see him.
Now unless some compromise is reached or Pere Noel is extra generous, Mikael will have to close his chicken and "pedagogique" farm by the end of the year.
It is a great disincentive to people setting up businesses to receive up-front bills for tax and social security contributions just when they need their capital most. This explains partly the success of the "auto-entrepreneur" system, which will defer payments until some actual profits are made.
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