VAT is handled by shops for you.
Council tax (local tax based on property value) you are sent a bill based on the value of your property. There are various exemptions and deductions for exceptional cases, but otherwise you just pay the amount.
Income taxes are deducted by your employer from your paycheck under a system called PAYE (pay as you earn). It works basically perfectly if you have one job, and can even cope with multiple jobs, variable income, etc.
If you have an issue with incorrect income tax, there is a friendly call centre who are generally knowledgeable and can fix things with minimal effort on your part; and they also handle some common exceptions (e.g. dividend income under £10,000) over the phone rather than via a form.
Note that if you earn over £100K, and/or sell more than £45K in shares/options in a year (so probably a lot of people on here from the UK/London-area who work for a BigCo?) then you must fill in a tax return even if all of your income is otherwise PAYE. In this case it takes just mere minutes but I guess they like to check everything really is simple.
The 25% off for single occupancy is very common rather than being an exceptional case, but yes applying for it is very easy via an online form (if you are organised and apply as soon as it becomes relevant) or a visit or phone call to the local council office.
Also applies to multiple occupancy if all or all but one of the occupants are full time students.
> We have provided a pre-filled 1040 based on your W-2s, Form 1099s, 1098s etc. We have made the following assumptions while preparing: > your marriage filing status remains unchanged since last year, > your dependents remain unchanged since last year, > you have no income beyond that reported to us, > you do not qualify for any deductions/ credits beyond those indicated in forms we have received. > > If all of the above assumptions are correct, you may sign the enclosed form and return it. Otherwise, you may use the provided pre-filled numbers and worksheets as a starting point, and make the necessary changes.
In the above scenario, one can very clearly see the amount of tax one paid, and the amount of income, as both are clearly indicated on the "postcard"-sized main 1040 form (which is a good joke as basically everybody will have one or more additional forms they need to attach to it.)
In Spain it's the same, except unfortunately they don't notify you when it's time (although the whole country has a month to do it so you can't really miss it). Also their login system is a bit more complicated than a password, they have a special 2FA system you need to setup in person.
There are no calculations to do, you just enter your incomes and deductions by type and it calculates your taxes for you.
In both cases, you can also use a mobile app for all of that. And you can choose to do it on paper, by physical mail.
Disclaimer: I was told this by people who were exchange students there at least two years ago. Things may have changed and/or be different (i.e. harder) for foreigners.
That was true until maybe 10 years ago? Today you can easily open an account online and never show up to a physical agency. If the bank you chose even has one.
But due to the way France works, with the different administrations forbidden from sharing information between each other and no central citizens repository, processes work on the customer themselves passing documents back and forth between the different administrations or companies, which makes it more difficult as a newcomer. Say, the bank will ask for a proof of identity and a proof of address, you have the proof of identity but the proof of address must come from an ISP or utilities company, which in turn requires a bank account. So you have to first find an ISP that will accept payment from your foreign account, etc.
It's different for example in Belgium, where once you're a resident all your information is there in a repository of the federal government and tied to your national number, so you don't need anything more than your identity card to sign up for a bank account. It's much easier but on the other hand, I don't really like having all my information in a single place like this, I just find it a bit unsettling that the police can look up your car's plate and call you on your cellphone to tell you that your car is badly parked.
And it has been like that for a while (I remember opening a PEL online and configuring a monthly transfer to fill it when I started working 10 years ago). Maybe all the banks are/were not at the same level, but with mine, BNP, it was possible.
Also, now, I also have bank accounts in a more "international" bank (HSBC), and to be honest, even if the website as the same functionalities, HSBC website is a lot more clunkier, mixing the old and the new than BNP's one which is reasonably good looking and easy to use.
Actually more and more people use online-only banks now, without any physical office. I couldn't visit my banks even if I wanted to.
Probably exchange students don't know the market and go to the nearest branch, so it might not be the most technologically advanced option.
Top left is the form section. The orangeish part is the prefilled value and the white box next to it is for corrections. Top right is a breakdown of your finances, bottom left is a breakdown of the tax calculation and bottom right just contains some payment slips.
Not sure how many people actually bother with returning the paper form these days as you can do it online as well.
Unless you have a very special circumstance (e.g. you're a Lloyds of London name) you can file online through the HMRC website which does all of the calculations for you and is mostly just a case of entering a few figures from your P60 and P11D for the vast majority of people.
