Double Taxation, Quadruple the Fun

Well, it's June 15, and that means it's time for round six of filing three different taxes in two different countries for arguably five or six different sources of income and about a thousand major deductions. Every time I think Anthony is finally done with the 2011 tax nightmare (which has included figuring out the taxes for his job, my company, house rentals, moving and business expenses, deductions, and his father's taxes in a totally different state), I find him holed up at the computer in the evening, working on the taxes again -- reviewing, revising, correcting, confirming, and either submitting, re-submitting, re-re-resubmitting, or worst of all, re-re-re-resubmitting documents.

Think of any tax question you may have ever had, and how you a) tried to figure it out for yourselves b) tried to get the answer from TurboTax c) asked your tax accountant or even d) called the IRS for information. Inevitably, you got up to four different answers, with wildly varying results, and had no idea which was actually correct. Option D (calling the IRS) is one of the most ridiculous ways to try to get an answer, since they will give you an answer but, simultaneously, a disclaimer that they are in no way responsible for giving you accurate information and that no matter what, you are liable for mistakes. I found this out the hard way when they once insisted I had overpaid my taxes in Q1, issued me a refund of thousands of dollars, and confirmed while looking at my tax record that I should deposit it since it was already Q3. Needless to say, as soon as I did, I was issued a bill saying that because of this refund, I had underpaid in Q1 and was responsible not just for the amount of the refund but also for the penalty and interest on the money for the half year since it was due. Once I paid, I was -- of course! -- reissued refund checks, and I still have two check from the US government, one for about $35 and another for $.01 (yes, one cent), that I have never deposited, for the obvious reasons.

Now, think of these sorts of tax questions in two countries. Before moving here, we had international tax preparation experts who specialize in helping ex-pats in French give us an estimate of what our tax hit would be so we could plan accordingly, and they warned us to expect owing an extra $30,000 at tax time. These same experts helped us file our taxes in April and now, again in June, and are most recently telling us we will receive a refund of about $20,000.

Today, I have tea with a reporter for a major financial news service who tells me that the foreign reporters in her office who come over on guest worker visas, which seems to be the one Anthony has, are not required even to file French taxes for five years. So now I'm wondering if we were even supposed to file here at all. Of course, Anthony's company has hired tax specialists for us, and they seem to think we are on the hook both for filing and paying French taxes. Personally, I think a swing of about $50,000 is nothing to sneeze at, and I no longer harbor any illusion that anybody knows what they're doing when it comes to any of our taxes, in either of our countries. Each time this conversation comes up with somebody new, I get a completely different and usually conflicting piece of advice, which I then pass on to Anthony, much to his irritation. "But Kazz, these are professionals, paid to do this all the time. I would think they would know if we didn't even need to file in France." You would think, but still....

Taxes in France are a different beast in that they are not withheld all year long from French salaries. So one must save all year for the inevitable tax hit that comes at the end, and woe to the person who sees a huge growing lump in their savings account, throws caution to the wind, and spends it. Given the information we've got to go on, we can't be sure whether what we've stashed away for our tax bill will go to the US government, the French government, or a surprise family trip to the Amalfi Coast. Don't call me unpatriotic, but personally, I'm rooting for Amalfi. Is June 15 the last tax day for my husband? Let's hope so. Poor Anthony. But not literally. I hope.