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Eslier

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Posts posted by Eslier

  1. Just call into your nearest France Telecom shop and you will be able to sort it out there. Don't forget to take a RIB from your cheque book with you.  Even if you only speak a small amount of French they will help you out - and it's always much easier face to face.

    You can't set up a prélevement (direct debit) over the telephone in France anyway, in the same way that you can in the UK. Even if you get through to the FT helpline they will have to send the papers out to you to sign and return so it will take longer.

  2. If your dogs already have a microchip, and they have already been vaccinated for rabies then you should visit your vet and this is what the procedure needs to be:

    1. Go along to your vet and take the microchip certificate, which should state the date of implantation, with you.

    2. Unless the previous rabies jab was fairly recent the vet will then give your dog a new rabies jab (doesn't matter if it's not a full year since the last one.

    3. Your vet can then take the blood test straight away (this is only possible without a four week delay because your dogs have previously been vaccinated for rabies) and the blood sample will be sent away for analysis.

    4. Once you receive the results of the blood test , assuming they are positive, you then go back to your vet with the certificate and, at this time he/she can complete a blue EU Passport for each of your dogs

    5. Six months after the date of the blood test your dogs will be able to travel to the UK.
    The cost of this process should be somewhere in the region of 100€ or perhaps a little more depending on your vet, per dog - the most expensive part is the blood test at about 70€.

    When you are booked to go off to the UK your dogs will need to be treated, by the vet, for ticks, worms and fleas between 24 and 48 hours prior to the scheduled departure time of your ferry or train. Your vet wil enter the details of this in the EU Passport.  When returning to France from the UK there is nothing further you need to do.

    The ONLY document you need to travel with your dogs is the blue EU Passport.

    To take your dogs with you the cost varies across different carriers. For example: Eurotunnel at the moment charge £30 per dog for France to England but make no charge for the other direction; Brittany Ferries have just increased their charge to £25 each way per dog.

  3. [quote user="sorchajames"]

    Also, I dont understand to start a business you need a carte de sejour but you can't get that without medical insurance?  So, would you have to get medical insurance before setting up a business to get you your carte de sejour?   Confusing!

    [/quote]

    No, you don't need a Carte Vitale or E106 or anything like that to start a business if you are and EU citizen.  When you register your business, you will be alocated an Independent Caisse de Maladie and this organisation will issue you, and any other dependent members of your family, with your Carte Vitale.

  4. [quote user="sunshine"]

    It makes sense that they will not want all

    the people with 1 or 2 gites, who have been within the law by not

    registering in the past, to now register in order to obtain an

    automatic entry to the health system.

    And Eslier, for those of us with gites that might now be thinking of

    registering, (but legally could choose not to in the past), it would be

    helpful if you would share more of your experiences about proportion of

    your gite income that goes on the social charges etc etc and how

    complex all the paperwork and bookeeping etc is once you are registered

    (can't imagine any beaurocracy in France will have a 'simple' system

    [/quote]

    Firstly, there are many Brits already running gites here in France who

    should be registered anyway but aren't. So, many of these people who

    think they are "within the law" probably aren't (I'm sure you aren't

    one of those people sunshine).  For anyone who relies upon gites as

    their main source of earned income (i.e. more than 50%) then they are

    legally required to register anyway, even under current / recent past

    laws - this is not likely to change. Likewise, anyone earning more than

    23000€ per year from their gites, regardless of whether it is their

    main source of income, is also required by law to register.

    Registration is not a difficult process but, as with any business, you

    do need to budget carefully for all the costs involved. Cotisations may

    be higher in the first two years but will level out in due course. The

    actual cost of registering is nominal.  

    As an example, I have a business with a turnover of about 70k€ and this

    year have paid about 4k€ in cotisations and no tax whatsoever (well, I

    had a bill for 9€ from the impots but they said they couldn't be

    bothered to collect it as it was less than 12€). I pay about another

    1k€ in fees to my excellent accountant. All the paperwork is dealt with

    by my accountant so other than keeping my business accounts I have very

    little to do. I've never even filled in a tax return as this is all

    done for me. My accountant comes to the house about three times a year

    and we go through the paperwork. I must stress however that this is

    only my example and everone's situation will be different - the best

    way to find out what your costs are likely to be is to speak to an

    accountant. Remember, a good firm of accountants will save you far more

    money than they charge you.
  5. [quote user="sorchajames"]

     I am assuming gite business does not count?

    [/quote]

    On the contrary, a properly registered "gite business" certainly does count just the same as any other business. It should be registered at the Chambre de Commerce and you will pay cotisations (which will be far far less than any health insurance). You will be a fully paid up member of the French "system" and all your dependents will be covered too. In this situation an E106 is not relevant anyway and is not required.

    To register a gite business you should seek advice froma French accountant who will advise you as to the most favourable tax régime  for your circumstances and guide you through the process - and will do most of the paperwork for you making it a very simple matter.

  6. Bead, you only need a Sky account if you want to receive the premium channels: Sky Sports, Sky Movies, Sky One etc.  If all you want to do is receive the standard free channels BBC1234, ITV1234 etc. then you don't need an account at all and your box will pick up those transmiossions without any problem.  To pick up Ch4 & Ch5 you will need a Freesat card which you can buy from Sky whilst still in the UK for a one off payment of £20.

    The advice that has already been given regarding it being against Sky's T&Cs to view these transmissions in France is correct but it is a practice which is commonly ignored by Sky as long as you don't tell them what you are doing !

    The dish already installed at your house should be fine if it has already been used for receiving Sky signals. If it has been used for picking up French satelite TV then it may need realigning and you will need to make certain it has a "universal LNB".  To be able to make use of the additional features offered by your Sky+ box, the LNB will need to have two or more outputs. You will need two cables coming from the LNB (the bit on the end of the arm on the dish set-up) to your digibox.

  7. In general the answer you are looking for is as follows:

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Answer the following questions:

    1) Is the income from your gites likely to exceed 23000€ ?

    2) Is the income your main source of income (i.e. more than 50% of your earned income)

    If the answer to EITHER question is "yes" then you should register at the Chambre de Commerce.  If the answer to BOTH questions is "no" then you probably don't have to and can simply declare the income on your tax return.

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  

    Registering as a business has its advantages. You may even find that registering under the réel tax régime instead of the micro could save you money. If you intend to go down the route of registration then you would be well advised to seek the advice of a French accountant who will almost certainly save you far more money than he or she will charge you. 

  8. [quote user="ebaynut"]

    Also, we planned to do the 'usual', ie gite, but only as a top up and to give us something to do. We fully appreceiate it is hard to try and earn a living doing this, it is more to have something to do.

    [/quote]

    . . . in which case you don't have a problem.

    As your gite will be your "main" source of income (i.e. more than 50% of earned income) then you will need to register as a business at the Chambre de Commerce. You only need to do this in your name and, once registered, you will be fully in the French system and receive your Carte Vitale through your designated Independent Caisse de Maladie. Your wife will automatically be covered under the same social security number and receive her own card without having to do any more. You will be required to pay cotisations into the French system which might mean that, for the first two years, you don't make much from letting your one gite but it will level out in due course. What's more important is that you will be "in the system" and will then always be so. Once your business is registered, your E106 becomes irrelevant and no longer applies anyway. When setting up a business in France it is always advisable to seek advice from a French accountant who can help you through the process and assist you in making the right decisions relating to business type and tax régime.

  9. Good move Pol, I don't suppose you're the first person to make the same mistake (very easy to make) so hopefully Darty will look kindly upon your request.

    Whilst you are waiting for it to arrive, you can download the installation instructions, in English, from the Netgear website at: http://kbserver.netgear.com/products/dg834n.asp

    You should find it very simple to set up if you follow the instructions - the software driver etc. can be installed in English from the CD provided. Just remember to select "France" as your location in the set up wizard to make sure you get the correct ADSL settings. You'll need your Orange/Wanadoo mail account (messagerie) name and password at hand to enter when asked.

    Once installed you can consign your old Sagem modem to a dark cupboard and hopefully you'll never need it again.

    It's also worth checking that you've got the latest version of firmware installed in your DG834N. The latest versions can be downloaded from the same link as shown above for manuals etc.

    Good luck - let us know how you get on.

  10. [quote user="ErnieY"]

    Can you point us to where this information comes from ?

    [/quote]

    Apart from the fact that I have a brand new one of exactly the same model sitting, in its box, next to me now, waiting for me to take back and install it in England next month . . .

    you can find full details of the spec at:

    http://www.netgear.co.uk/home_wireless_broadband.php

    In short, the WNR834B is a router only without having a built in ADSL modem.  If one has a suitable modem with ethernet conection then, of course, there is no reason why it cannot be used. The problem is, that the Sagem modem (supplied free or for 1€ by Wanadoo/Orange) is a USB modem and this isn't compatible with the router.  I suppose another option would be to purchase a simple ADSL modem with an ethernet port but this is likely to cost another 70€ or so anyway. Much less messy to try and exchange it for a DG834N if at all possible.

     

  11. Sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings but, the WNR834B is for use with "cable" and is not compatible with a standard telephone line type ADSL connection.

    On the plus side however, it is the very latest bit of "wireless-N" kit and is a great thing to have if you live in the UK and have Virgin Cable - probably not much use in rural France however.  If you are able to exchange it then the equivalent item for ADSL down a phone line is the DG834N.  If you aren't able to exchange it then you shouldn't have any trouble selling it on ebay-uk. This item is currently retailing new for about £80+ in the UK so you should be able to get about £60 for it I would have thought.

  12. At only 45€ for your best room, per night, you are quite cheap for your area. The going rate seems to be 50€ to 60€ in the summer.  Why not consider two rates and keep the off season prices the same as they are now but introduce a new high season price (July and August) of 50€ for your twin room and 60€ for your annex room which sounds really nice and worth every centime.  You may well find that charging more attracts more people as they will think they are going somewhere of a high standard. It will also make the people booking off season think they're getting a bargain !  Might I also suggest that you include the proce in Euros on your default English language page which will make it simpler for people (especially non-Uk English speakers) to make comparisons more easily.

  13. Accessing your Orange/Wanadoo account should still be ok on port 25 at the moment but there are still issues with some ISPs blocking emails that originate from that server. One way around this is to reconfigure your Orange/Wanadoo account to make use of their secure server using port 587. Detailed instructions as to how to do this can be found at:

    http://www.orange.fr/bin/frame2.cgi?u=http://assistance.wanadoo.fr/reponse1354.asp

  14. Orange.fr, in their wisdom, this week have blocked "port 25" which many mail servers use for connecting to outgoing smtp servers.  If you are having problems sending emails via your own (other than Orange) mail server then you will need to change the port number.  You will need to check with your host company which other ports they use but many seem to use port 587 so it may be worth trying that first.

    To change the port, assuming you are an Outlook or Outlook Express user, go into tools/accounts and then select the account by clicking one on the account name, then click on properties and then select the advanced tab. In the top box you will see the smtp port number set to 25 - simply change this to 587 (or whatever your host company has told you to use) and click on apply.

  15. [quote user="Breton Networks"]

    OK, I thought I read somewhere that you had to inform the Marie &/or some other authorities.

    [/quote]

    There is a new requirement for Chambre d'Hotes to register with their local Mairie but there has been nothing said to indicate that this also applies to self catering gites. It would, of course, be polite to let your Maire know what you are intending to do but I do not believe there is any obligation to do so unless you are in an area where Tax de Sejour (tourist tax) is charged in which case you will have to register for collecting this from your guests.

  16. a) draw up a long term letting contract (or better still get a notaire to do it for you - the tenant can be asked to pay for this) and make sure you know what your and your tenants legal rights and responsibilities are.

    b) nothing, assuming it will not be your main source of income, except find some cstomers to rent it next year.

    For either a or b the income will need to be declared in your next French tax return.

  17. Please do not do what you suggest !

    The cut out is tripping because there is a fault condition with your oven. This could cause the casing of the oven to become live and in such a circumstance it could kill you if you touched it. These cut out switches are there for a reason. You should either contact a deDeitrich  authorised service centre or consider replacing the oven.

  18. [quote user="Ariege Auberge"]

    Eslier

    Can you provide another link to the regulations you've cited above as I couldn't get anywhere with that one? I'm interested in the comment about the hygiene regs. As a small hotel owner (6 rooms) it's fantastic news to hear that finally France is coming into line with the rest of Europe with regards to hygiene in B&Bs and I'd love to know how rigorous it's going to be.

    [/quote]

    The full text can be found at:

    http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/WAspad/UnTexteDeJorf?numjo=ECER0759563D

  19. You can offer more or less what you want but three courses seems to be the norm. Dinks must be part of the inclusive cost (although the drinks you offer don't have to be wine) as you are not allowed to charge extra for these. You will need to obtain a Class II License from your local dounes (customs office) but this is usually provided free of charge. You could probably get away with charging a little more for the adult meal. Somewhere from 12€ to 15€ would not be unreasonable for an evening meal including drinks and coffee.

    Don't forget that you will also need to conform to the new regulations, Décret n° 2007-1173 du 3 août 2007, which require you to register with your Mairie by 31st December, conform to a maximum of 5 bedrooms or 15 persons, comply with hygene regulations and, if it is your main activity / source of income, register with the Chambre de Commerce.

    Good luck.

  20. Ernie is right of course, if you are sitting in the same room as your wifi router then there is little benefit to "n" over the current "g" speed. If you have a large property or thick walls however then this is where "n" should come into its own. Speed is diminished as the signal becomes weeker so where you might only be getting a 1mB or less connection at the range limit of a wifi "g" router, the signal and therefore the speed should be significantly better with a "n" router.

    If you are working with a "g" laptop and a "n" router you will still see some benefit over using a g+g. To get the maximum benefit as has already been pointed out, then n+n is better.

    At this time, I wouldn't rush out and buy a new pre-n router to replace my existing super-g router (just as I wouldn't bother to upgrade from XP to Vista just yet) but if I were buying new anyway then it's always best to buy the highest specification you can afford.

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