French Authorities To Simplify 'Stress Producing' Tax Forms

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

08 August 2001

After 462 years, the French Ministry of Public Works and State Reform has decided to modernise the country's archaic tax forms, it revealed recently. The last comprehensive administrative reform took place in 1539, when King Francois I decreed that official documents need no longer be produced in Latin.

Aide to the Public Works Minister, Marie-Barbe Girard said that the reform was spurred by the number of complaints received regarding the complexity and density of the documents, and the realisation that many French citizens were simply failing to fill them out. ' No one ever asked if people understood the forms,' she observed. A study commissioned by the Public Works Ministry confirmed its worst suspicions, when it showed that the complex tax and administrative forms which have long been part of French officialdom, created a 'climate of fear', and were described by taxpayers as 'complex' and 'anguishing'.

The Ministry is in for a long haul; it plans to progressively rewrite all of its existing stock of forms, which number around 1,600 at present. However, it has decided to prioritise the six most commonly used forms first- tax forms, social security and welfare forms, national identity card requests, family stipend forms, and wills. It has put together an unusual team to undertake the reforms, comprising linguists, representatives from volunteer organisations, and songwriters. The simplified versions of the documents will be available in November.

Recommended