A residence tax riddle for a homeless Frenchman

Spare a thought for Emile Busson, a Frenchman who has had problems with the tax authorities here.

He recently received a demand for taxe d'habitation, or local residence tax, for 2008 to the tune of €692.89 to be precise (or just over $US 940).

The only problem is that Busson is homeless and hasn't had a permanent address since 2000.

Actually the most recent bill was a reminder of a previous one amounting to €612 sent last summer to his mother's address in Chelles, a town in the eastern suburbs of the French capital.

Because Busson had "chosen to ignore the first one", the tax office decided to slap on some interest second time around, and add €20 in administrative costs.

Somehow though the records also showed that he had in fact paid 11 centimes of the bill.

A word of explanation perhaps about taxe d'habitation in France without going into too much detail.

It is, as the name suggests, an annual tax based on the combined income of a household and one occupants have to pay collectively regardless as to whether they rent or own a property, unless that is, they fall below a certain threshold.

Lucky home owners also foot an additional bill in the form of a taxe foncière (or property tax). But that's another story.

Anyway back to Busson, who's in his 60s and has for most of the past decade been of "no fixed abode" as he explained to Le Parisien, the capital's edition of the national daily Aujourd'hui en France.

"My last permanent address was back in 2000," he said.

"I couldn't get along with my wife and that's when I decided to leave and move to Chelles," he continued.

"I was put up by a friend, who also gave me a job, and that's where I remained for two years until I moved into a small room at a cheap hotel."

That wasn't permanent though and a year later in 2005 he took to the streets, which is where he has been ever since.

Busson admits that he spends the odd night sleeping on the premises of a shop where he works from time to time in a nearby town; a story backed up by the shopkeeper.

And he occasionally lodges with friends or acquaintances.

But to all intents and purposes he has no permanent roof over his head and is therefore sans domicile fixe (SDF) or of "no fixed abode".

So how come he has been charged a local residence tax? And why do records show that he has already paid the princely sum of 11 centimes while he insists that he ignored both the initial bill and the reminder?

Well the local tax office admits there might well have been a mistake made somewhere along the line.

But it's couched in the sort of bureaucratic legalese surely guaranteed to confuse.

"We've done our research and found nothing that allows us to establish with certainty that Mr Busson is taxable," a spokesman said.

Which in plain English (or French as the case may be) means that he has nothing to pay and the demand has been shelved.

And on that mysterious 11 centimes payment "already made"?

"We advise him to get in touch with us so that he can apply for a rebate."

Huh?