A French pensioner has appealed to authorities to help him finally remain in charge of his own taxes and not those of his namesake, whose yearly taxes he has been paying for the last 15 years.
Having a namesake is a norm, however, this has turned out to be a disadvantage for an octogenarian named Francis Lopez living in Montpellier, France.
Lopez, 83, shares the same name, the same birth date, the same city, and even most of the digits in his social security number with another man. Unfortunately, authorities always send him his namesake’s taxes as well.
Le Figaro reports that the problem started 15 years ago when supplementary pension provider, AG2R La Mondiale started recording another Francis Lopez’ income, which meant the 83-year-old had to pay taxes for it as well.
He tried getting in touch with the company several times but eventually gave up, seeing as he could solve the problem “manually” by simply deducting his namesake’s income from his tax sheet. However, because of a new tax withholding tax, that’s no longer possible.
French tax services have so far failed to resolve the bizarre situation, despite Francis’ numerous requests.
He has already had to pay 700 euros ($830, N439,900) in taxes for his namesake’s income, and fears that if nothing is done, he will have to pay thousands in the years to come.
Speaking about his predicament during an interview on French media RMC, Lopez said;
I was born in the same city, on the same day with the same first name. Our name is Francis Lopez, both born in Oran on October 6, 1938 and we have the same social security number except the last three digits.
The octogenarian further expressed;
I started having problems in 2006 and today I’m the one who pays his taxes. The trouble is that if nothing happens I will be charged on the next few years if they are still deaf ear, if they do not want to settle this affair.
Luckily, Francis Lopez’s story has generated a lot of attention in French mainstream media and social media, and tax authorities have announced that his situation will be resolved in a matter of days.
