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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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1. Yerll - Reet - Jimmy
2. No Double Taxation - but there is a Snag 3. Pools - You can Take a Horse To Water... 4. Investing for Gain - or Pleasure 5. Here's to you Mrs Malaprop 6. Whatever I Say - Do Get Professional Advice 7. Come to France Ned Kelly - You Will Fit Right In 8. Sharing France Project 9. Tribute to Terry Thompson This is issue number 80 of the France Voila Newsletter sent on, 21 October 2003. This week 10,183 copies will be sent to subscribers. From the next issue we will be adding some advertising, if you wish to have an advert displayed in this newsletter and on our sites at... FranceVoila and Fblog please Contact Us ====== 1. Yerll - Reet - Jimmy The idiocy of France Telecom knows no limits - paying a telephone account by card using the telephone has not ever been simple - it used to only be open at certain hours - why is not explained - I assume their computers had to work the same 35 hour week as the overstaffed beaurocracy of this monopoly. When I phoned today to pay a bill, not only did I get the usual inane advertising and pointless talk, but this time, instead of telling me to press a number for a service, it is voice activated, brilliant, except it clearly does not recognise my accent, any accent - eventually I got a reaction by doing my Billy Conelly impression of a drunken Glaswegan. This is a perfect instance of Moores' Law, in reverse, each year they double the number of people and halve their efficiency. ======= 2. No Double Taxation - but there is a Snag Tony, I have picked up on your item on taxation for rentals in the pros and cons section. As UK residents considering buying a French property as 1) a holiday home and 2) a good return, are you saying that we would have to pay tax on any rental income (our 3rd reason for buying) in both the UK and in France? Obviously we will take further detailed advice on what our full tax liabilities are to both countries, but can you initially confirm the double whammy applies for any rental income.....i.e. we have to declare our rental income as part of our regular UK tax return and also need to make a declaration to the French equivalent of the Inland Revenue. Best regards (and please keep those Newsletters coming) John == Hello John, Yes do take local and professional advice relating to your personal situation, but in answer to your question - no you do not pay tax twice on earnings in France, you pay tax in France and there is a dual taxation agreement between France and England. But, you are obliged legally to declare your total global earnings if you are considered a resident of France (6 weeks residence - yes 6 weeks - can be a residence qualification for tax). You will of course show that you have already paid income tax, but there is a snag. If you have income in two countries, then the tax thresholds will be affected, for although you will only pay the income tax in each for the earnings in each the threshold will be applied in both as the total of both. So if you earn 50,000 euro in the UK and 20,000 euro in France, your tax will asses in France as if you had an income in France of 70,000 euro and you would pay tax at this rate on the 20,000 earned. Similarly in the UK you would pay tax on the 50,0000 euro assessed at a 70,0000 threshold. There are tax regimes which can help change this, but it depends on you personal situation. There is more information on our sites at Information and Finance Hope this helps Tony ======= 3. Pools - You can Take a Horse To Water... We do try to help and it takes a lot of time to reseach our answers and compile the information. Our "tipping" is helping a lot - but some people you just can't please - how about this exchange (I did like the "Sir" bit though).... == Sir Reference to all the letters etc about the laws regarding pool safety fences.Where is the information that tells you how high, how far away.what is it to be made of etc. As far as i am aware this information does not yet exist except in the minds of eager pool contractors.Please do you have any information on this subject. Ted == Ted, The law is there it is clear and it will be enforced. The information is sparse, but it is there and not finding it is no defence in French law. We have shown some links from the front pages of most of our sites for over a year, the law is clear enough on dimensions and the ways the fencing and gates must operate. To try and help, I have just made a couple of quick pages giving more information about the pool rulings at... FranceVoila/Pools This is a very powerful and vitally important law, unfortunately very little has been done to tell people about this. There are fewer pages on the Internet about this life saving information than there is for a really useless phrase like "pickled neptune". Tony == To be honest Tony the information you sent me, although it is all you have got is totaly useless for someone wishing to fence their pools. We want to comply with the law but what is the law. I pass!!!!! Ted == Ted This is a translation of the Law - it will not help you much- Raffarin Law the standards mentioned are "AFNOR standard XP P90-306" detailed in the text on the other pages I sent you - there is no more information than this - but there is sufficient detail for you, or any pool installer to know how to comply with the requirements. Tony ======= 4. Investing for Gain - or Pleasure Tony We are considering buying a house in France purely to rent out and are in fact due to go out to Brittany for one weeks' holiday. We have booked to view just a few properties but as you are well aware it is a minefield and our heads are ballooning with information. The question formost in our minds is where to buy that will then be good to rent. We have considered Normandy around St Lo/ Coutances and possibly by the coast - Gouville. In addition to this we have found a number of places in the surrounding area of Lannion. Can you give us any guidance? Look forward to hearing from you. Regards Anne == Anne, If you are buying for pleasure, then you should buy what pleases you. If you are buying for commercial reasons, and you are experienced in property this - then you will know what to look for and how to determine the risk. If you are new to the property business and you live in the UK but are considering investing in France - then you should ask yourself ..."why should I be successful investing in something I know very little (nothing) about?" You cannot rely on the advice of anyone who has an interest in selling or encouraging you to invest (even worse borrow to invest) in property. They will only be interested in their fee or commission, not to give impartial advice. I have written many times about this, recently in some in-flight magazines and on our weblog at FBlog.com also there are many pieces in my newsletter at FranceVoila Brittany is charming and continues to be popular with visitors, but the number of visitors is shrinking (by 10% in 2001 and possibly more last year in Brittany - from an EEC report) and the number of properties for rental is rapidly increasing, it has doubled at least in the last 5 years. In real terms rental prices have declined although property prices have doubled. There is a margin still for the experienced investor and there are always opportunities and "luck" in anything. But my advice is to go into any purchase with the attitude that "I really don't need to buy anything". In the last 14 years of living in France I have seen many visitors buy and then regret their purchase very quickly. Many who have come and buy have sold again, at a loss, within a couple of years. Regarding specific areas, it is impossible to give advice from a distance. A home on one side of a road may be a bargain, but a similar property on the opposite side, at the same price could be a disaster. There are so many factors to consider that you need to gain this knowledge yourself, which is why I say that if you are an experienced and successful property investor already in the UK, then France could be an interesting and new challenge. Hope this helps Tony ======= 5. Here's to you Mrs Malaprop Tony I was reading with interest the info about getting newsletters through an RSS feed. You said :"But the important thing is the url, put this in an aggregator and you can get all our latest news as it is written." What is an aggregator?? Thank you! Wendy == Hello Wendy, An aggregtor is a big scaly lizard like animal which live in the river Nile and eats people, - oh sorry no that is an allegory. A quick answer is that it is a piece of software which can request information from specified sources and show them on a computer in a clear and useful format. News, gossip, financial services and things like that. The software is usually available without charge, and there are many similarities with web-browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape in the way you see the information, but they are not browsers. One good description with more detail is on this page Aggretators If you do this search on Google you can see and download aggregators Aggregators Hope this helps Tony ======= 6. Whatever I Say - Do Get Professional Advice Tony, In a recent reply to a question from about taxation on rental income you said... "If the only income is letting part of your own home which is your main habitation then a regime "micro" would be relevant - you declare every single penny you receive and are liable to pay tax on 30% of this sum" In the brief desription to "Sue" about taxation using Micro as her tax regime. This year taxation on that system, bed and breakfast gites etc, is 28% giving an abbattement of 72% allowance against all expenses etc.Please don't take this as "gospel" but it was what I believe niow to be the case. Hope that helps and sorry if it is not correct for all purposes, i.e maybe those persons that do not actually live in France but have "maisons secondaires" still have to pay on30% ? Kind Regards Malcolm == Hello Malcolm, Thanks for the feedback - there are several regime "micro" structures - the 70/30 will apply to someone living in and renting part of their own home - a b and b is a different thing as it has to be registered at the prefecture and is more likely to be a business - it has very specific rules. The regime micro also has a 50:50 and a 35:65 arrangement for different types of income. No matter how hard I try to get a clear answer - I am always given differing responses to the same requests from each source - one Chamber of Commerce will make a definite answer which is completely the opposite to the expert comptable which is then opposed to the tax inspectors interpretation. My understanding at the moment is that a private home in France, owned by a non-resident of France, can opt to pay tax on 30% of the total income, no expenses or costs can be offset as this is absorbed in the 70% allowance - BUT - a local tax office may determine that the owner can only allow 50% or possible only 35% off the total income. The total income must be shown on the tax return. The confusion may be due to the fact that many properties are purchased with the sole purpose of an income - this is a business and will be looked at (and may be taxed) differently. It is likely to come down to the amount of time an owner spends in the home and the number of weeks the home is rented - there is no clear definition of this - in fact in law (perhaps by design) there is still no definition of a "maison saisonniere". My experience over the last few years suggests that the tax authorities are looking at this huge potential revenue generator, which has largely been ignored, and are planning to tighten up the tax situation for privately rented homes in France. Someone has to pay all those pensions Tony ======= 7. Come to France Ned Kelly - You Will Fit Right In Hi We are Australians and want to know of any issues with buying a property in France Gavin === Hello Gavin, No - it is very simple - there are no restrictions on anyone (even Bin Laden) buying a property in France - you find a house, make an offer and sign a "compromis" pay 10% and that is it - a few weeks or months later you pay the balance and it is yours. Once an offer is accepted it is secured. Making a living in France is quite another matter however. Hope this helps Tony ======= 8. Sharing France Project Here is a plug for this interesting project... == If you are a Francophile, no matter where you live, then you are invited to join in the following. The 'Sharing France' Project is a collaborative effort among Francophiles, geared towards collecting and disseminating 'verbal histories' in an interesting and entertaining way. The project has been started with the aim of collecting together first-hand experiences - of visiting, living in or working in France - and publishing them, as an electronic book, for the information and enjoyment of Francophiles everywhere; in particular those new to France. So, do you have an amusing, sad, moving, informative or cautionary story about any aspect of visiting or living in France? Perhaps mixed feelings about finally leaving home to live permanently in France or the vexed problem of a border dispute with neighbours; the fun of making new friends or the trauma of repairing a leaking tap at 3:00 am? Whatever the story, we'd be delighted if you came and shared it with the project. Full details (including submission procedures) available at: Total France Project Anyone can contribute - you don't have to be a Mark Twain or a Jane Austen - and there are no pre-conditions about style or content. There are no conditions about length - six lines to six chapters, it’s up to you. This is not a writing competition but an information-gathering project. If the story is of interest then come and share it with interested people! To make the project more fun, and to acknowledge your input, the first entries will receive an award. So will the best of the contributions overall. We look forward to reading your contribution. ======= 9. Tribute to Terry Thompson Our friend Terry died on August 26 - we are getting many tributes from all over the world from musicians who knew and loved this very special man. www.Nizas.com/terry Here is an anecdote from a fellow musician, John Mumford, about their days playing Jazz in Paris. == ...I suppose you'd call it a residency. Two weeks. The owner had tried everything. This time he was trying jazz. For accommodation there were six very small rooms under the roof. There were many interesting after-hour discussions in the attic often through until breakfast and beyond - today Terry is advancing the proposition that if one is not there to observe "it", then "it" does not exist. Boris, the drummer, tall and gaunt with dark sunken eyes has, through desperate soul searching, arrived at an intense humanitarian view of the world and is appalled by this cynical negativism. "You must not, Terry, you cannot believe this!" "Oh but I can" says Terry gently yet provocatively "No no no" shouts Boris, rising to his full height. "Terry, listen to me" "I’m listening Boris" "Right Terry-" (Boris moves slowly backward) "I am God, ok Terry?" "Ok Boris, you're God" replies Terry placidly. "I go into God’s room, ok?" And Boris goes into his room and closes the door. A pause. Terry takes a sip. "Are you still there, Terry?" calls Boris, rather cunningly. "Yes Boris" answers Terry. "Ahaa!" cries Boris, triumphantly flinging open the door and striding forwards. "Terry I have just proved to you that you are wro-" ...at which point his forehead comes into contact with a roof crossbeam, the impact catapulting him back, a uni-cyclist in reverse, into his room where, with a crash of breaking furniture, the door slams shut. I remember, to a background of muffled curses, Terrys' tolerant chuckle as he lights another Gauloise... |