Evianers

A huge pity this does not exist in France..............or does it?Supposed to be illegal here but we still receive several calls each day https://www.bbc.com/news/business-46571074

As the OP of this thread, I would like to say thank you to all who responded and who provided some very helpful information. It is now 30 days since we registered our claim via secure messages and, like most people, it says that it is awaiting a response from the DGFIP. I'm guessing that our local office have kicked it upstairs to Annecy - who in turn have probably kicked it higher upstairs to Lyon. All we can do now is wait until the result of the Government's appeal is known, so - back to sleep. Regards to all, Sheila's OH

And then there is this.................. https://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/1530882134.htm/#xtor=ES-3999-[MYSRCH] at this rate we shall probably be staying where we are!!!

https://www.leboncoin.fr/ventes_immobilieres/1529934247.htm/

Inevitably we shall have to move into an apartment as we grow older. These cost an astronomical price around here = we are talking 750,000 - 850,000 {more than houses actually} so we do not want to saddle ourselves with extremely high annual charges on top of the purchase price - NB have seen one apartment with the annual charges set at 5000!!!!!So the question is, who is it that actually sets these charges, and how? On what are they based? Obviously communal lighting, lift, probably cleaning, and maintenance must come into the equation but can one also put in an offer to purchase and have the charges lowered? Cheeky or what? But we are asking this question before, and not after the event as we have been caught unawares sometimes in the past[8-)] Thank you everyone

Going off at a tangent slightly, our thoughts go out to all those who have kindly responded who have been at one time or another suffering from The Big Nasties - seems like quite a number, as we have too. On a positive note, thank goodness we are all taken care of under the excellent facilities in LBF - we do wonder if similar care would be taken under the good ole NHS[8-)]

Super guys - thank you very much!!We knew we could rely upon you [both] for intelligent and fulsome answers.[:D]

To all of you who might know the answer to the question what happens to your private medical files when your GP retires, thanks in advance for a detailed answer.But wait, there is worse ....... OH has relied upon the above for his annual post-nasties PSA blood check ordonnance for his urologist, to whom we were referred by the GP of course. File still on GP's lap-top. Then our marvellous opthalmologist, who comes a-visiting from Germany to treat we locals, is also no longer able to come 4 times per annum because her French partner is retiring.Not to mention my on-going severe osteoporosis...... All this confidential information! We are desperately trying to find an alternative GP but as these are thin on the ground, and totally overloaded due to massive construction in these parts, we actually wonder whether the retiring GP needs to hand over the files on 31/12 to the new GP.Perhaps you know the answer Norman H?In any case, many thanks for pertinent information and yes, it is Sheila who is writing this...

Super replies = thanks guys. This makes a whole lot of sense. Will keep quiet, will advise our friends to also keep their heads down, but in the long run it seems as though they will be sorely disadvantaged {to use an overworked modern word}. Perhaps we all will be...................?Thank you for taking the trouble to respond - always much appreciated.

Thanks for the fulsome response : no, same Commune but larger house, larger plot.We all benefit hugely from the Evian Water Company taxes of course, but even so, simply cannot understand why their's is less than ours. Age of the house perhaps? Their house is probably from the 40s/50s whereas ours was built in 1991. Perhaps that's the answer.Get your drift about applying to the tax office. Perhaps keep our heads below the parapet?

Hi everyoneunfortunately our French is not good enough to trawl through the legalities and minefield which is the explanation of taxes, in this case TF.We look after a property which is considerably larger than ours, owned by folks from UK. There was an official looking letter sticking out of their box, which we took back home and after asking them, opened. Tax Fonciere bill. So far so good, but their property is larger than ours, on a far larger plot [including part of the garden which can be subdivided] but their TF bill was much lower. How come? Who is it that sets the rate? How can we go about having ours reduced? Is this in fact possible? On what basis is the TF worked out? Sorry about all the question [marks] but if anyone can answer these, we should be most grateful. Thank you.

Mint, yes it's time to gear up for another round of claims. Not sure if we need to mention De Ruyter or the Appeal Court decision - or both! It's interesting that the Appeal Court in Nancy stated that "the major part (14.05%) of the social charges was to be immediately reimbursed to the taxpayer." Members of that Court have obviously never seen the Fisc in action - or in this case, non-action! Funny that when we owe the Fisc money, we have a limited time to pay before penalties kick in. However, when the Fisc owe us money, we have to make a claim and then wait for over two years for them to actually pay out. Yes, they pay some interest but most of us would rather have the money now. After all, the Fisc know from our tax returns how much we have paid in Social Charges and it can't be that hard to trawl through the taxpayer database to find all references to S1 or E121. They could even obtain a list from CPAM to cross-check - although that would mean two Government departments actually having to talk to each other..... I'm guessing that they work on the principle that they will have to refund less money if a) they don't actively inform the taxpayers and b) force those who do find out to make a claim within a short time in the hope that a lot of people will be too late. Plus ça change.... Sheila's OH

I have been usurped! Yes, it is not Sheila, but the OH who wrote the above.100 euros for 1 hour's work..............sounds good to me. OH is going for it

An item on French Property News came out yesterday https://www.french-property.com/news/tax_france/social_charges_nancy_judgement/ which appears will lead to another round of claims by French Residents with S1 forms. The court has basically disallowed the changes to law made by the French Government in 2015 which re-allocated Social Charges and allowed them to be imposed on everyone in France. The important part of the article is where it states that claims for refund of Social Charges paid for 2015 and 2016 must be submitted before the end of 2018. Sounds like it's going to be another long saga to get the money back.......

The client WILL be coming to my house - would this perhaps make a positive difference?

For more than 18 months now, I have been giving free English lessons to the retired members of our community - much enjoyed by all seemingly! Hooray. However, now one of the Mairie employees has asked our lovely Maire whether she can have structured English lessons with me, which have to be paid. Question is, for a modest amount per week it seems that legally I shall be required to take out a Siret. Have any other forum members had to do this, and if so, can you please guide me through the steps as the above employee tells me it is incredibly complicated. Hope not, but knowing France, she's inevitably right! Thank you in advance for all helpful and precise suggestions.

An update and some good news. We are in Dept 74 so we emailed the main tax office in Annecy with whom we had dealt when resolving our claims for refund of Social Charges. They quickly contacted our local Trésorerie who in turn did the interest calculations for 2012 and 2014 and sent us a copy of those calculations. Those agreed with what we had calculated and the money arrived in our bank account today - all done within one week! However, for some strange reason, the refund of the 2013 Social Charges came from a tax office in Grenoble (Dept 38) and the interest on that has not yet been forthcoming. After further emails to Annecy, they have decided that the 2013 interest will also be paid by our local Trésorerie. We have advised them of this and await their reply - that might take a little while as the 2013 Social Charges were paid in three separate amounts on widely differing dates. We have learned the following from all this: 1) The interest is calculated from date of original payment to date of refund 2) The interest is simple interest, not compound interest (no surprise there!) 3) The interest is NOT taxable and does not have to be shown on your tax return We hope that this may be helpful to others. Thanks to all who replied to our original post.

Thanks Parsnips. We have just checked the reimbursement statement and it does indeed show OUI next to Intérêts moratoire for each of the three years. We will follow your sound advice and send them a copy of the statement and ask them where the interest has got to. We will also tell them how much we think it should be. Wonder if one can claim interest on a delayed interest payment.......?! Thanks again, much appreciated.

The 48 € is only the difference between Simple and Compound interest. What they actually owe us is more than 500 € based on simple interest if our calculations are right. The extra 48 € would bring the total close to 600 € - definitely worth fighting for!

Well, we finally received the refund of Social Charges on investment income for 2012, 2013 and 2014, a mere 2 years and 3 months after submitting our claim. However, they have not paid the interest and we shall have to start another round of emails with the tax people. We would prefer to accurately calculate what we think the interest should be and then put that figure to the tax office rather than them just come up with any old figure. To do that we have some questions which we hope someone can answer: Q1: Over what period is the interest calculated? Is it a) from the original date of payment of the social charges to the date of refund or b) from the date of our claim to the date of refund? Hopefully the anwer is a) ! Q2: The interest rate is 0.4% per month. Is this applied as simple interest or compound interest? In our case compound interest would give an extra 48EUR. However, we expect that the tax office uses simple interest... Q3: Is the interest taxable? We would assume that it is unless there is an exemption for interest on overdue refunds - unlikely in our view but you never know. Many thanks in advance for any helpful answers.

[quote user="woolybanana"]The problem round Lake Lemon is a nasty wind called the bise, isn’t it?[/quote] Absolutely correct! Perishing cold and has been for the last two days whilst the Bise worked its magic. Brings down the wind-chill factor by another 5 degrees I would say. But the area is absolutely stunningly beautiful so we are wavering. Spoilt for choice I would say [before anyone else does]!

Thank you for the replies so far - definitely makes interesting reading. No, Thonon is correct - next town along Lac Leman towards Geneva. One thing is for certain..... prices are half what they are around here!! Thank you Switzerland for offering such HUGE salaries and low tax.

After nearly 11 glorious years here in the Haute Savoie, the winters are beginning to take their toll. Neither of us ski, raquette, or participate in other winter sports which means that the six months of winter are very long. We are therefore toying with the idea of moving further south. For those who live in the Sarlat area [though which we passed two years ago and loved] could we please ask that you give us the benefit of your advice regarding living there. How long are the winters? Is there any snow, or much rain or frost? Which supermarkets are there in the town centre/outskirts? We hear that there is a thriving expat community. Are they all ex-UK residents? If anyone is thinking of selling up, please let us know! We are looking for a house/townhouse [without too many charges] with 3 beds/study, closed kitchen, integral garage on land of less than 750m2 [seems rather difficult to find in that area, as most have hectares]! For all responses, many thanks in advance and meanwhile, we continue to peruse Leboncoin and GreenAcres for properties that are for sale. Greetings from cold Evian Sheila

Our combined and profound thanks - from NC and from Evian

Would ALBF be able to answer the question regarding an American/Italiana coming to live in Europe being able to open a French bank account please. You have been recommended!!! Having some conflicting responses from others on the forum