Bjames

I ham now dealing with finances due to my husbands memory. We moved to France from Uk 11yrs ago and thought we had done all necesary. I now find we have been paying tax in both countries and that the small UK private pension is not declared in France. I have heard of large fines for this and am concerned as we cannot afford that. It is a genuine mistake. Do I go to the tax people or find someone to do it for us? Any helpful suggestions appreciated.

Pulaski

Start by finding an accountant with experience of British and French taxes. If you have been paying tax in both countries it is likely that any tax you have "evaded" by not declaring a "small" British pension will be more than offset by overpayment of taxes.

You need to establish the extent of any overpayment and to what extent you might be able to resubmit your tax returns and reclaim it. At the most practical level you need to estimate how much the error is in Euro and GBP terms and whether it is cost effective to pay an accountant to unravel everything for you, or whether it might be better to get things straightened out for thr current year going forwards. If the reclaimable overpayments are only £1,000-£2,000 then you could easily spend more in fees than you will recover if you filed corrected tax returns.

In short, unless you are "comfortably off" (or better) I suspect you would be best served by just getting things right going forwards.

Bjames

Thanks, I woulkd not say we are comfortably off, but we mange ok. I do not thin paying somone will be practical at that sort of price.

Pulaski

Honestly then, I would "write it off to experience" and get it right going forwards. At your income level there is neigible chance that the tax authorities will be in the least bit concerned that you are ripping them off, and from what you said, in the highly unlikely event that you are audited it sounds likely that you have over paid anyway.