Benjamin Franklin famously plagiarised Daniel Defoe when he wrote "In this world, nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes".
Well I'm not yet convinced about 'death', but as far as 'taxes' are concerned, he was right!
Some time back I received a House Tax (rates) bill for a house I didn't know I owned. At the time I wondered if somehow it had been included in some other purchase I'd made, and I became quite excited. Of course reality soon replaced my exhilaration, and I was sadly informed that it had all been a big mistake.
Just recently another bill has informed us that we own woodland on which we must (of course) pay money to the State (above). The Cotisation des Parcelles Boisées (dues for wooded lands) is not huge; just a matter of €12 (including TVA tax on the tax), but where we wondered was our woodland?
Lady Magnon popped down to see the Mayor, and was informed that 'OK, you may not own any woodland, but your land is being taxed as if it WAS woodland; and you are obliged to pay-up regardless'.
So, there we have it. We must pay a woodland tax on woodland we don't own. Yup, that sounds right!
You must grow some trees…might make you feel a bit better about it!
ReplyDeleteSounds about right.
ReplyDeleteSounds much the same as over here Cro.
ReplyDeleteEvery year for the last twenty years Inland Revenue UK has apparently been fining me for not filing my tax return.
ReplyDeleteI hope you've paid the fines!!!
DeleteI haven't lived there for over twenty years! Before that I was in the Army, I don't even know what a tax return is.
DeleteNo excuse!
DeleteTime to start planting something the Mayor would not like. I know someone who was overtaxed for a pub that had been closed for a year. He hired someone who painted brightly colored circles all over the building in protest. The politicians were not happy and the neighbors were even less so. It remained like that for a year.
ReplyDeleteHey Cro, figure this one out. I am sure you have heard of the health care mess we are wading through here in the United States. Everyone is required to have health insurance by next year or be accessed a tax. Our supreme court determined it should be a tax and not a fine. So now if we don't have or refused to get signed up for health insurance we will be taxed on nothing. It has just turned into a crazy mixed up mess. It will put a burden on our country's finances that will be most difficult to recover from.
ReplyDeleteHave a great woodland tax day.
I hadn't heard that folk would be 'taxed' for NOT having health insurance. That seems a little harsh for those who can't afford it!!
DeleteIt is because those who are uninsured do get sick and then everybody else has to pay for them through our taxes.
DeleteCheck your act de vente...each numbered parcel is chaacterised as woodland, pasture...whatever.
ReplyDeleteThat was the first thing we did. Nothing!
DeleteWe're retired and they make us pay taxes quarterly and then file a reconciliation form in April as if we hadn't filed quarterly.
ReplyDeleteabout the same as over here - our council tax has gone through the roof
ReplyDeleteCro, see if there's an 'ugly wall tax' and let the mayor know that there'll be revenue galore waiting at the end of your 'woodlands'.
ReplyDeleteI like it.
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