Estimated reading time (in minutes)
Tex agreement Russian friends residing in France, have you recently resold a villa or an apartment located on the Côte d’Azur, or somewhere else in the country? There is no doubt that the tax bill must have seemed “salty” to you, since it now reaches almost 50% of the capital gain realized. However, spoliation is not inevitable, and we encourage you to assert your rights in court, as the chances of success appear high.
Challenging Discriminatory Taxation: Seeking Justice for Russian Residents in France:-
It is now a fact: we have finally succeeded, after several years of legal battle, in compelling the tax authorities to put an end to their dubious practices in terms of taxation of real estate capital gains realized on French soil by Swiss tax residents (for more information, refer to our news from last December entitled “End of the spoliation of Swiss residents in terms of real estate capital gains – Call for the mobilization of Swiss taxpayers stripped by the French tax authorities”).
If the tax authorities have therefore definitively given up on trampling on the Franco-Swiss tax treaty, taking on – need it be recalled – an authority superior to that of the provisions of the General Tax Code, they still refuse to draw all the consequences that imposed by virtue of the decision handed down a few months ago against it by the Council of State.
And for good reason: many other tax conventions regularly ratified by France, containing a non-discrimination clause, continue to be the subject of deliberate violation, since the French tax authorities do not hesitate to subject the taxpayers to whom they are supposed to benefit from a tax rate of 33.1/3%, where residents of the European Economic Area see themselves applying a rate of 19%!
Violation of Tax Conventions: Urgent Need for Judicial Intervention:-
Moreover, as if bailing out the coffers were able to justify resorting to a combination of stratagems, each more despicable than the other, the State does not hesitate to subject such gains to social levies with a rate close to the 16%, even though the taxpayers concerned have no recourse to our health system!
The abuse is particularly flagrant with regard to citizens of the Russian Federation, since the first paragraph of article 24 of the Franco-Russian tax treaty of November 26, 1996, provides unambiguously:
“Natural persons possessing the nationality of a Contracting State shall not be subject in the other Contracting State to any taxation or obligation relating thereto which is other or heavier than those to which are or may be subject natural persons possessing the nationality of that other State who are in the same situation, particularly with regard to residence. This provision also applies, notwithstanding the provisions of Article 1, to natural persons who are not residents of one or both Contracting States”.
Worthy of another time and likely to tarnish the image of France in the long term, such a practice must be eradicated as soon as possible by being again subjected to the censorship of the judge, so that the administration abandons it definitively and with regard to all the taxpayers who today pay the price.
If you have therefore been the victim of this over the past two years, know that you are in a position, today more than ever, to obtain justice!
DAMY law firm – 2014 – contestation of capital gains tax
