Having moved to France in August, I have tried to complete the "France Individual" form for transferring to the French tax system.  The form appears to be impossible to complete correctly as I have not been here for a complete tax year.  How can I best proceed.  I have previously been a French tax payer when I was an ex-Pat in the 90's.  Any guidance would be appreciated.

The tax forms for 2012 income are not available until May 2013; you can't complete your first declaration online - you need to get one from your local tax office

I think you will find that the French tax system is geared to its fiscal year - Jan to Dec. You will fill in your first tax return for 2012 in 2013 (by the end of May 2013 to be exact). You tell them by completing a tax return - they don't send one out to you speculatively and any tax you have to pay for 2012 will be notified to you about this time next year.

For the first year, it might be sensible to contact someone like Janet Hall (www.janethall.org) to assist your integration into the system and to give you peace of mind.

We arrived in November - wrote to the tax office at the beginning of the next year to tell them we were here and received our tax return in the post in May.  Filling the form out is a different matter - read the various posts here!!

You cannot complete the France Individual until you have received your first advice of impot in France as you need as you say to have the number; so not until next year for you. Until then you'll pay tax in England which is then refunded when the paperwork is sent to them. A word of advice if you are a couple you obviously need to fill in two forms one for each of you but as the French tax the household they might not realise there is a form for each person (they nearly threw one away when we gave it them as they forward it once it is filled by them with necessary information).

Just go to your nearest tax office and ask for a tax form; after you have filled one return they will be sent to you automatically. No need to do anything online until you get your first automatic return. You don't say when you moved to France but if it was this year you don't do a tax retuurn until next year. Depends upon your area but usually April so go to your tax office at the beginning of that month.

They will probalby have someone there that can help you fill it in and if your finances are very simple you might only have to fill just one or two boxes in. Take a photocopy of it for future reference. It really can be as simple as that.

Thanks for all your posts.  I'll just sit and wait and continue paying UK tax until April then.  When the French tax kicks in, if my understanding is correc,t it will date back to my arrival in France (Aug 2102), whereupun I am hoping I can offset my wood burning stoves with the "credit d'impot" for 2012.  Does this sound correct to you?