French tax authorities investigate Angèle’s claim to be Belgian tax resident

The French tax authorities are investigating Belgian singer Angèle regarding a dispute about whether she spends enough time in France to be considered having a duty to pay taxes there.

Angèle’s team maintains that the singer and her company are fulfilling their legal obligations by declaring all income in Belgium, where she was born (in Brussels) and claims to reside.

But French tax authorities suspect that the artist is a tax resident of France, mainly on the basis of an interview in which she said that she spends half of the year in Paris. A long-term stay could justify her tax liability in France.

Tax investigators visited her apartment in Paris last year and seized documents, including bank transfers and legal correspondence.

Angèle tried to have the seizures declared null and void in court, but was unsuccessful.

“Fortunately, we have already recovered some of the seized documents on appeal, but not all of them,” her solicitor Sébastien Watelet told Bruzz.

Watelet emphasised that the singer has always been a tax resident of Belgium and that she declares all her income there. This also applies to the income from her company Saïmiri.

“She declares all her worldwide income in Belgium,” Watelet said. “She also files a declaration for property tax on real estate in France.”

Angèle owns, among other things, an apartment in Paris, registered in her personal name and not that of her company. But according to her solicitor, the French administration includes her entire patrimony in the calculation of a person's main place of residence for tax purposes.

“This can also include assets other than real estate,” he added.

According to Watelet, the French tax authorities want to check whether her tax residence and the company’s registered office should be considered French.

“The case therefore concerns both personal taxes and business taxes,” he said.

Watelet said the mention of "suspicion of fraud" is a procedural step to obtain judicial authorisation to carry out investigations.

According to a press release issued by Angèle, the search is part of a "broader action targeting Belgian artists who are recognised on the French market".

The French tax authorities declined to comment on the matter, citing confidentiality of individual tax arrangements.

There is currently no indication as to how long the investigation will take.