EuroTrash
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Posts posted by EuroTrash
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The conseil general doesn't tend to send letters round every household but they don't keep things secret, the information is all accessible to anyone who is interested to know. Round here the local paper does a pretty good job, it always reports on the new tax rate without fail and everyone is on the lookout because they know when the council meets to set it, it's the same time every year. The paper usually prints a full article explaining the reasons for the increase if there is on, and usually the mayor congratulates himself on keeping it as low as possible in the circumstances, and then depending on the increase there will be more or fewer readers letters for the next few weeks. Does that not happen round your way? Any big spending plans are also reported on. But failing that you can check the minutes of the meetings, they are always made public and some communes even pin them to the noticeboard outside the town hall. So if you're interested it's not hard to keep up, and there is certainly no need ever to wait until your bill arrives to find out the tax rate. You can even go to the conseil municipal meetings if you like, they are normally open to the public. So although I agree the onus is on you to find out, the information is made available and I'm not sure you can blame the council if you don't avail yourself of it if you want to.
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Macron made the right noises but the mechanisms AFAIK are still not clear and AFAIK the mayors are still not satisfied. Part of Macron's plan for "compensation" seemed to involve rewards for improved efficiency - which although it sounds good in theory, and as you say some mayors need it, it wasn't felt acceptable overall because in practice it penalises communes that are already run efficiently because they can't really get more efficient, whereas inefficient communes have plenty of scope to show improvement and get the rewards.I suspect the tax raising strategy will be long term and we will just have to get used to higher taxes than in the past.
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"I have asked the Maire whether there’s a financial issue in the Commune which has brought about this (quite concealed) hike in the Commune elements. So far, a deafening silence !! "I imagine it's quite simply a question of maths.The commune needs XXXk euros to cover its annual budget.If it collects 25% less from a large proportion of the residents, then clearly it will have a shortfall. The maires have had robust discussions with Macron about this and Macron has made noises about helping them out but AFAIK nothing concrete. So the question is, if Macron doesn't come up with the goods, what will happen in those communes that didn't increase the tax and therefore can't cover their next year's budget? Will they cut back on services or will they take out a loan and will they have to increase the tax even more the following year, to pay back the loan? I'm actually quite glad that my commune did implement an increase.
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I notice in your first post you asked why young Brits don't live and work in the Midi. Well they do, but as already said it attracts a totally different type of person. Typically they go there to work on the yachts and they live in rented accommodation and move around following the work, they live like that for a few seasons and then either they settle down or they move on. Compared to the typical Brit who moves to Dordogneshire, it could hardly be more chalk and cheese.
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But isn't it a bit like saying, why does person A prefer steak to chicken and why does person B prefer chicken to steak? Leaving aside pork, lamb, fish etc.To me it's a non question, the two regions are different in so many ways, they have different types of appeal therefore they will appeal to different people. Climate, landscape, cultural influences, the local accent and intonation, food, lifestyle, the colour of the sky, the quality of the sunshine, the smell of the air. To me, all these things distill themselves into a unique ambience and that's what I base my feelings about a place on. I suppose other people do too? Like steak and chicken - yes there are lots of specific difference but basically, for most people, it comes down to flavour, which tastes the nicer to you. It's subjective not objective, and emotional not logical. To me the Midi has a buzz to it that the Dordogne doesn't, in fact nowhere in France that I've ever been has the same buzz. From touring both areas in my camping car, staying on aires, I know that in the Midi there's a far higher chance you will get chatting to people of all nationalities wherever you stay, people seem to be more outgoing and fun-loving. Obviously this is tourists not residents but, I put it down to the ambiance, it's just somehow more colourful and vibrant and it invites people to relax and open up and do mad things that they wouldn't normally do. You wake up in the morning, you smell the air and see the sky and hear the voices with the Midi intonation and the way they say their vowels all wrong, and it's exhilarating. And, I suppose association of ideas comes into it too - I've had some truly magical times in the south of France, so whenever I go there the memories come back. Dordogneshire is nice enough, I've had very pleasant times there but it doesn't have the same ambiance nor anything equivalent.But, we're all different. From the fact that you're asking the question I take it that you don't tend to pick up on the ambience of a place or it isn't important to you so you will probably think I am raving ;-)
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Richard51 wrote "can people who live there give a reason to live there as opposed to Dordogneshire."You make it sound like Dordogneshire and the Midi are the only two parts of France that Brits can choose from... heaven forbid! They're both very nice areas to visit, preferably in May/June or September, but I wouldn't want to make my home in either.For a holiday home, Dordogneshire has to win hands down on price - one of France's cheapest areas versus one of the most expensive.
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What worries people is that your electricity supplier can collect information on your behaviour inside your own home, because Linky systematically records your electricity usage. This information can be stored and potentially hacked or sold.
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There's some concern over Linkys being an invasion of privacy, because they can build up a fairly complete picture of your private life from your electricity usage pattern - what time you get up and go to bed, when you're in and when you're out, when you have guests, etc.Personally I've become pretty immune to privacy issues and resigned to my life being an open book to smart technology, but can't say I like it and I understand that other people may find this a real issue.http://services.completefrance.com/forums/completefrance-forums/cs/forums/AddPost.aspx?PostID=3662446
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Is this property in a different commune?If so, unfortunately you're on a hiding to nothing. It's a fact in France that the property taxes on a house in one commune can be 3 or 4 times higher or lower than an identical house in the next commune. The rates are set by the commune and it will depend entirely on the communal budget. So, income, ie how many people and businesses they collect tax from and what level of grant they get from the state, versus outgoings, ie what amenities they provide, maintenance costs of roads etc, any one off expenses such as replacing sewerage systems, the cost of servicing any loans they have from previous years, all that kind of thing. The rate for the year is set each spring when they work out the annual budget.Beyond that, the tax for each property in that commune is calculated using that figure and its notional rentable value, so within the commune, the more desirable the property the higher the tax.Communes with low property taxes tend to be either very rural where they provide few amenities and have low outgoings, or thriving cities where there are a lot of businesses and individuals paying tax. Communes paying high property taxes unfortunately tend to be towns with few businesses/a relatively low population compared to level of amenities/a high proportion of low income households who are exempt from paying. To balance their budget those communes obviously have to collect more money from those who do pay. It's how it is. You can always ask your local tax office to recalculate your tax but if they come up with a higher figure, you'll wish you hadn't ;-)
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YCCMBOQIYP wrote: "Andy: I'd say, given the rabid fervour with which the media jumps on every Brexit hiccup, cockup and faux pas, that if the app wasn't working we would, most definitely, have heard about it. Frequently. In every news bulletin. But maybe they're just saving it for a slow news day?"Must be a slow news day.https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-46035919"Ms Nokes told the committee the government was still trying to get problems with its online application system - first identified in June - fixed."It doesn't work on Apple devices.
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" I don't want to be distracted from concentrating on the idiot coming up behind me about 30 kph faster, wondering if he will pull out to pass me before the car on his outside has a chance to miss him, or whether he's just peering at his satnav or "device", or the if other idiot coming up equally rapidly in the inside lane, who sped up after I passed him is going to try and cut in front of me"Exactly my point.Any idiot can drive fast these days, drivers don't need skills or road sense any more.You always did get them, but the more no-brainer driving becomes, the less folks use their brains.
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Thanks for the insights, CT.In fact one of my jobs is to proofread a car magazine and I have proofed various road test reports of these scifi things. Occasionally what I read makes me splutter - things like, you press a button and the steering wheel folds away and you just leave the car to get on with it - but I try not to have a view. It just makes me glad that I'm old and won't be part of it. I guess if you grow up with it that's fine, but adjusting to it is hard. All the fun's gone out of driving. Maybe it never should have been fun, it was basically about getting from A to B after all, but it did used to be fun and there was skill in it too before cars had all the electronic controls that they have now. 60mph in my old Hillman Imp was thrilling. Finding a radio station that stayed tuned in and didn't crackle was thrilling. Getting the heater to work was thrilling. Now you drive at 90+ listening to any music you want with the air con set just right, and there's no thrill in any of it.
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"I also believe that there is a minimum one has to have paid into the french system, at least 60 trimestres."For a full pension there is a minimum number of trimetres, which depends on your year of birth, but if you've paid in less then you simply get a smaller pension.A few years back when I'd been contributing here for about 3 years my pension forecast in France was a massive 450€ a year ;-) I haven't managed to get a forecast since then, don't ask.
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If by social charges you mean CGS and whatever the other one is called, I think the answer is No. In effect these are simply a tax which is used to fund the healthcare system, but you don't actually get anything back. Specifically, they're charged on income that's for one reason or another bypassed having French social security contributions levied on it - typically income earned abroad or unearned income. Whereas pension contributions paid by workers in France are collected based on their French earned income and passed to their retirement "caisse", and there is a different "caisse" for each profession. If your dad was never classed as a worker in France he won't ever have been allocated to a retirement caisse nor made any pension contributions.
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I don't think EVs will stay tax exempt for ever. At present it's an incentive to encourage people to buy them but once they become mainstream there won't be any more need for an incentive will there.
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LOL yes I did appreciate the irony, but they're going to spend it on upgrading to smart motorways aren't they and for me, those aren't better roads they're more dangerous roads. So it's a kind of double irony.
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I think in fact if it's no deal, healthcare arrangements will have to be agreed between the UK and individual states, because the European Council has made it crystal clear that the moment a no deal scenario comes into effect, the Council's role as negotiator on behalf of the 27 is at an end and it leaves the negotiating table. I think the phrase the EU initially used was something to the effect of no deal means negotiations stop, it doesn't mean a series of mini-deals in key areas, and the UK seemed very surprised and disbelieving and got them to repeat it several times in different words so I'm not sure if the message went home in the end or not.But as you say there are all kinds of healthcare treaties between EU and non EU countries and no doubt the UK will be added to the list, but it won't be an EU-wide agreement since the EU doesn't interfere in what healthcare arrangements individual states decide to agree with third countries.
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I do just wonder how much patience the EU has left. Yes a deal will be less damaging to the EU than no deal, but dragging out the uncertainty seemingly ad infinitum is damaging in itself. Barnier or someone said months back that it's not more time the UK needs it's more decisions, but it fell on deaf ears.29th March is getting closer day by day and I fear the UK is in danger of crashing out by default rather than by design.
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So, could be a double whammy for those of us living in the EU who expected to reach UK retirement age before Brexit but have had our retirement date put off to after Brexit - not only do we have to work for longer but when we do eventually get to retire, we won't stand to benefit from these arrangements.
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Oh no not more smart motorways.Every time I go back I seem to hit motorway closures and delays due to roadworks that make an already long journey seem endless, and smart motorways stress me out. You have to be so alert to all the variable speed limits and when you should and shouldn't be using the hardshoulder as a driving lane etc. And there's nowhere safe to go if you break down.Yes I know you should be alert at all times, and no doubt it becomes second nature to motorists who use these motorways a lot but when you live in rural France and don't visit the UK often, and being on a motorway with four or five lanes in each direction is a bit mindblowing in itself , when the motorway is smart as well it adds to the stress.
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This is surely just the equivalent of the bill that France introduced a couple of weeks back. All it's doing is preparing a procedure to pass future legislation swiftly. It doesn't get us any further forward about what that future legislation might or not contain.But I guess we should be grateful that the HMG has faced up to the fact that legislation will be needed and taken the first step.
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"Once you have given that up you will lose obviously any rights (OAP etc.) it would seem. "How does that work then CT - are you saying that an immigrant who has worked all his life in the UK, would not have the right to an OAP if he's never become a British citizen? Seems very wrong if that's the case. Or, would he only be entitled to it if he remains resident in the UK?
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I think once you understand this, French inheritance laws suddenly start to make sense. All pieces of the same jigsaw.
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"unless someone speaks really good french and knows France I have not got a clue as to why anyone would move to retire"I suppose that its main attraction for a few/some/many retirees, is as a well-earned extended holiday. Much like in the UK's pre-EU days, going on a world cruise was the aspirational thing to do when you retired. I seem to remember that being what a lot of people blew their lump sums on. Then joining the EU made it easy to retire to places like France and Spain and people latched onto that instead. I totally understand that people need something to look forward to to keep them going, a kind of light at the end of the tunnel to keep them beavering away year after year, otherwise what's it all for (I say that as someone who never stuck a proper job for more than a couple of years - the light at the end of the tunnel never did it for me, but I admired people who had more sticking power than I did). The problem being that when you go on a world cruise it's obvious you need to keep a home to come back to, whereas when you move to France or Spain or wherever to enjoy your first taste of freedom, there is no return date on your ticket so you don't think about it. Maybe post Brexit world cruises will come back into fashion as the way to spend the kids' inheritance.
Carte de Sejour - Translation of Documents
in French Legal Issues
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