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Everything you always wanted to know about France |
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France Voila and FPD news - 29 February 2004 1. Investment Property Sales 2. Tilting at Windmills 3. Leaseback Yields 4. Hunt the Civil Servants 5. Channel Crossing Pirates 6. More on the Pool Laws 7. Renting Long Term in France 8. Taxation on Rentals Income in France 9. Complaints 10. Schooling in France 11. French Medical Insurance 12. French Internet sites for Home Rentals - the Law 13. Guilty Until Proved Innocent 14. Vintage Cars for Sale 15. Owners and Advertisers Liability to prosecution and Taxes We now have over 25,000 subscribers and the aim of this newsletter is to give information about life and living in France to all visitors and English speaking residents. The information and comments are based on our personal experience and research. Carole and I have lived and raised our family in the South of France for 15 years and if you read some of our archives and weblog you can see that it aint all roses, sunshine and wine festivals. Sitting in the garden on a sunny day in February, while our friends in England write to me about the snow makes it all seem worth while. I have been slow sending news and information recently as we have been working hard improving our services on our websites. Our main business is in the tourism industry in France, helping people to find and to rent villas and homes here through our sites such as http://rentalsfrance.com/ RentalsFrance This is getting more difficult as the Laws and regulations tighten up. Many of these rules are good, if they are ever applied, such as the safety requirements for swimming pools, but others are no more than restrictive practices aimed at protecting the estate agents here who, in general, give a very poor and very expensive service. However, the bottom line for all the new initiatives is to do with collecting more taxes. What started out as, literally, a "cottage" industry, people renting out their private homes for some extra income, is now a billion euro business. We have had floods of mail about the tax laws here, where do you pay, who is exempt, my UK lawyer says...We also have had a lot of mail about bad properties, owners not refunding deposits and we get some abusive mail from owners we have removed from our sites when clients have repeatedly complained. When I get time I will set up some discussion forums about this, for now you can see some of the mails on our France weblog at http://fblog.com FBlog We are pleased to see this is the number one weblog in Yahoo and number two in Google for France Weblog. ======= 1. Investment Property Sales Many visitors to France decide that they would like to buy a home here. We started replying to inquiries last year and made a website at http://frenchpropertydigest.com/ French Property Digest which gives information specifically about investment opportunities, we listed a few developments and since December we have had thousands of inquiries. This huge demand took us by surprise, but we are now ready to expand this service.... Full Story at... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/69 Investment Property ======= 2. Tilting at Windmills Rupert Wright, the author of the super book about our region "Notes From the Languedoc" - buy it now at http://francevoila.com/books/languedoc/ Languedoc Has written about the proposed wind farms which may be coming to the Herault valley. Only benefiting local landowners, these plaguey things are an environmental nightmare. Far from being "green" energy - they use more resources than they can ever save and the only "green" is the money in the farmers pockets. Pass me my lance, Sancho. Full Story at... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/56 Windmills ======= 3. Leaseback Yields Tony My girlfriend and I were wondering what sort of yields holiday rentals can generate. Money is still quite cheap in England but the buy to let market is getting quite lean so we are looking for somewhere with a better return. You just can't find yields of more than 9%. Are higher figures possible in France? In a similar vein, what sort of capital growth is there? Things have gone crazy in England but it is starting to plateau in the South. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/68 Leaseback Yeilds ======= 4. Hunt the Civil Servants For all the hundreds of thousands of tax collectors, inspectors, verifiers, assessors, and their countless anonymous, shuttered and bomb proof offices - it is very difficult to find anyone who can give you advice or even to find out where you are supposed to be registered. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/67 Hunt the Taxman ======= 5. Channel Crossing Pirates Sunday Time Journalist, Jonathan Miller, sent me this reminder concerning his campaign against the "cartel" fixing high prices for channel crossing services. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/66 Channel Pirates ======= 6. More on the Pool Laws Tony You must be sick of the pool safety affair by now but after long investigations it appears that alarms alone are acceptable but after being ripped off for fences we are now being ripped off for alarms. It appears that the date has been pushed forward to May and it is rumored the bill is being appealed. God save the Queen. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/65 Pool Laws - again ======= 7. Renting Long Term in France Dear Tony and Carol, We have been visiting your website for a while now and find it very informative. The reason being,we would love to move to your area.unlike most people,we do not have a house here to sell but we would like to give our children a better life. Do you think it would be possible for us to rent a family home on a long let basis,as all the ones we see,are based on holidays. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/64 Renting Long Term ======= 8. Taxation on Rentals Income in France Tony There has been a lot of publicity recently about the liability of non resident property owners for French income tax, most of which seems to point back to you! Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/63 Renting Long Term ======= 9. Complaints I got this message last week from an anonymous source (there was a name, but we have never heard from this "person" before in over 1 million mails)... Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/62 Complaints ======= 10. Schooling in France I have one burning question. I have 6 1/2 and 2 1/2 yrs old boys. How will they fare in the French schools? The oldest is particularly bright and could go far. What are they like and what are facilities like generally? Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/61 Schooling in France ======= 11. French Medical Insurance Hello Tony My wife and I are avid readers of your newsletter e-mails and it is our intention to join you and so many others in Languedoc when we retire in a few years' time. We were with some expats in Paris last week who told us that they have hit an interesting problem/dilemma. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/60 French Medical Insurance ======= 12. French Internet sites for Home Rentals - the Law Hi Tony, I read with interest your comments about illegal advertising of rental properties that do not show all contact details of the owner. Does this mean that large agencies such as Abercrombie & Kent, Quality Villas, Meon Villas and the thousands of worldwide rental sites including French Connections etc are acting illegally and liable to be shut down by the French authorities ? Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/59 Internet sites in France - The Law ======= 13. Guilty Until Proved Innocent The saga of our personal tax inspection continued last week with a "hearing" by commissioners. After a year of examinations and having to prove where every single centime of our income came from, we were finally allowed to ask this simple court what is going on Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/58 Guilty Until Proved Innocent ======= 14. Vintage Cars for Sale I am clearing our my garage and have a wonderful old vintage Citroen for sale as a project. It is a 1923 B2 Pickup Truck and is complete apart from headlamps and a petrol tank. The engine turns over, the doors are made of canvas, and having been in the South of France for 75 years there is no rust. It is scruffy and needs someone to restore it. Also a classic VW GT Beetle Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/57 Guilty Until Proved Innocent ======= 15. Advertising Rentals in France - Owners and Advertisers Liability to prosecution and Taxes? Tony In various articles published recently, and quoting your site, it has been stated that the French are poised to swoop upon the owners of villas and websites who fail to comply with tax regulations regarding rentals. Full Story at.... http://www.fblog.com/?q=node/view/55 Owners and Advertisers Liability ======= |