Taxation in France / Letter from the French “Direction générale des finances publiques” / New form
Under this title, the CERN Management published, in the last issue of the Bulletin (52-4/2017, on 18 January 2017), a notice to active and retired members of personnel who have received a letter with a form from the French tax authorities.
This notice was provided without prior concertation with the representatives of the personnel and the pensioners. A good example of a missed opportunity in our opinion: there was certainly a better way to defend the interests of the Organization and its personnel, both active and retired! Here is our position on this matter.
This form shall be used to update the civil information that the French tax authorities have on taxpayers. This update is not obligatory, but it is likely in your best interest that your civil status and contact information are up to date in their database. Still, it is up to you to decide whether or not you want to return this form.
Even if the letter cites the introduction of a direct income tax deduction from revenue in France as of 2018, we consider that it does not concern the taxation of active and retired members of CERN personnel.
Moreover, this form is clearly intended to be automatically processed by an optical reader. It is thus entirely unnecessary to add any handwritten remarks neither on the form nor on a separate sheet.
Therefore, the CERN Staff Association and the CERN and ESO Pensioners’ Association (GAC-EPA) recommend:
- to those who have received the letter but have not returned the form: return the form but answer only the questions asked without adding remarks on the form or on a separate sheet. You are not obliged to return the form, but we consider that it is probably in your interest that your personal information is correct and up to date;
- to those who have already returned the form: there is no need to take any further action;
- to those who have not received the form: there is no need to take any action, and you can rejoice!
