Kayjay<P> <P><P>"Passer sa vie à lutter contre la connerie est le meilleur procédé pour mourir dépuisement."<P>

I had thought about that, La B, but it seems that property prices are quite a bit higher north of the border!  Also, it's not the tax that's the killer but the cotisation payments and I haven't a clue what those are like there. Anyone en Belgique reading this?

[quote]La B's solution will work if you are actually physically in UK when you do the work- rather than just visting the clients in UK. But if you do the work in France you come under the French system. I kn...[/quote] Are you sure about that, Will?  My understanding is that you had to pay French tax on your world-wide earnings if you were fiscally domiciled in France.  Like you, I guess, I would have to go to the UK to actually work at my clients' offices but, as I said, I was under the impression that Monsieur Impôt had already sussed that one out.  Or are you saying that the UK address would be my UK company address, in which case the UK tax man wouldn't allow travelling expenses as that would, I believe, constitute commuting to work?

Unfortunately, La B, it's not what I regard as my most convenient domicile but what Monsieur Impot does!  If I take up permanent residence in france, or spend 6 months and a day there, or even spend more time in France than anywhere else I believe, then he will deem me to fiscally resident there.  I don't fancy a van-load of flics on my door-step, nor a few days of dry bread and water, even if it is baguette and Perrier! A little more research on the URSSAF site reveals that if I were earning 25,000 euros a year I would pay cotisation of 4,795 then 3,797 and 17,318 in the 3rd year!  How on earth is anyone expected to run a business, eat and pay his bills on less than 8,000 euros a year?  It's certainly no wonder that the black economy is thriving while the rest of the economy is in the doldrums...

And I am correct in understanding that a self-employed individual is required to be registered as a business of some sort, am I not? Looks to me as though a lot of money invested in passports for pussy-cats was a bit of a waste! 

Hmmm, you're not kidding, TU! Unless I've confused my self totally, the URSSAF site tells me that, on an income of 40k euros and with no exonerations, my first full year's cotisations would be 4,795 euros, the second 5,793 euros and the third 25,736! Does that sound feasible to anyone?  If those figures are correct, it's hardly surprising that so many people work on the black or that TK gets so upset about it. Is it a case of deducting the equivalent of personal allowances, allowable costs etc first or does one, as I did, use the gross income figure? Someone/anyone, tell me I've missed something obvious here!

Thanks to all of you - it certainly seemed a fairly hefty charge to me, especially since I operate a barter deal with my present accountants in the UK; I solve their computer problems and they do my tax returns! I have a liitle (not too much, I hope) cheekily added a new topic to see if someone can give me an approximate guesstimate as to what my liability might be.  Unfortunately my timescales have suddenly shortened as the property market in 'Ackney isn't as slow as I was led to believe! Thanks again and the beers are on me at the next LV beano....

Here goes again!  I'm in the throes of making a final decision about relocating from the UK to Pas de Calais but am still pretty unclear about whether the French taxman will allow me to afford it.  I'm self employed and earn a pretty small amount, c 25k sterling, which is liveable on with the relatively benign system of taxation and allowances in the UK.  If I relocate, my main business expense will be the travelling costs (fuel, ferry) to get to my clients in London. Can anyone give me some sort of guidance on whether these expenses are allowable for self-employed people in France and roughly what I might expect to pay in terms of tax and social charges?  I've tried the "DIY" system on www.impots.gouv.fr but it's geared mainly towards employees and doesn't offer much information for the self-employed. Having made more than my fair share of bad moves and stupid decisions over the years I'm keen to try my best to get this one right - I much prefer life in France and can't really afford to buy a place in the UK anymore after the ex is paid off but I also do need something to show for my efforts after the taxman has had his cut!

I have been given the details of a French accountant by my UK accountants and contacted them with a few questions on how to structure my financial affairs so as to minimize my tax exposure.  I also dangled handling my on-going French returns as an incentive to cough up some free advice (worth a try anyway...). Briefly, I received an email with an additional question 2 days later, together with a promise to get back to me within a week.  I replied immediately but heard nothing for a fortnight so fired off a "wonder if you've had any thoughts" email.  Now I've finally had a reply telling me that the boss man has been discussing my affairs with one  of his employees and that it will cost 1,100 euros for his initial advice and an as yet undisclosed amount for annual returns. This certainly seems steep based on what I've been used to in England - is he trying it on or does this seem about right for France?

Those few weeks are now nearer 3 weeks!  Still looking for a rental property, not too close to a road and preferably in the St Omer region although almost anywhere in the west of 62 or 59 would be fine. I should mention that both the cats and I are house-trained 

I need a couple of loads of dry wood in the region of Prats-de-Mollo-La Preste.  Does anyone know any suppliers, please?  I could collect from as far as Céret or even beyond.

I have an old but perfectly serviceable Tirolia wood-burning range for sale, with owners manual.  It has 1.5 ovens, several hot-plates and also can run a reasonably small central-heating/hot-water system.  Will sell for a reasonable offer or would swap for a decent wood-burning stove, with cash adjustment either way.  Alternatively would buy the stove on its own.  I`m happy to throw in an old trailer for the buyer to take the range away with - I will have to check the trailer is still okay!  I`m near Prats-de-Mollo-La Preste but you will need a 4x4 to get to the house - trailer needs a universal hitch, not a tow-ball. Needs at least 2 people to move the range.

Personally, I've been with La Poste for years and find them very efficient - plenty of branches all over France and open on Saturdays too!

Does anyone know if propertydefrance.com still exists?  Their phone appears to have been cut off...

A note of caution: My experience from trawling the notaires.fr site for property in the last couple of days is that about 30% of the email addresses they have for notaires advertizing property are incorrect!  Of the ones that appear correct (ie don't bounce back) it seems that a large proportion don't actually bother to pick up their email regularly or at all - makes you wonder why they bother to use the Net in the first place!  On the other hand, some respond almost instantly...

"Who are the most intelligent, well a human who can ask that kind of question, has to put the whole thing in doubt I guess.............." You're absolutely right again, Miki - of course we are the most intelligent species on the planet.  We have to be, since we are the ones who define what intelligence is..... Maybe we now ought to stop congratulating ourseves on being grown-up and intelligent and start acting as though we actually were?

"Letting for a year is simply not long enough to get to grips with the language and see if you like it." I'm not quite sure what you meant by "see if you like it",  do you mean like the language?  In any event, I can't see why a year isn't long enough to build up a reasonable grasp of almost any language when you are committed to doing it and actually living there. Of course, if one belongs to the school of "SkyTV/where can I get fish and chips/buy marmite/find Samuel Smith's/increase my circle of British friends/speak English slowly and loudly to the natives" then it might well be more of an uphill struggle.... I've seen the same syndrome in Greece, also, with people who've been there for 50 years and still can't understand the TV news - I imagine it's similar in Spain etc. And how come the Dutch seem to speak every language known to man?   (Apart from, "because nobody speaks theirs"!) 

Does anyone know if the system for self-employed people in France is broadly along the lines of the UK as regards allowable expenses, ie one can deduct travel expenses (travelling to work in the UK, for example), share of heating/lighting, cost of computer etc and then pay tax on the remainder of one's income? (Said without much hope that there will be any recognizable similarities!)

"obviously not grammer related " - when in a hole.....

I know that EAs pitching at UK buyers in France must be bombarded with dreamers all the time but what do people think of a "prestigious" property company which advertizes heavily on the net but doesn't publish its phone number?  Sensible or too off-hand?

Has anyone come across a good tax advisor/accountant, French or UK-based?  I need to work out what my likely liabilities are before I find out the hard way!  There seems to be so much conflicting info floating about regarding dual-taxation treaties etc that it must be a mine-field for even the "experts"...

[quote]I hope that they won't be swooping over my lakes either which is my main concern. I'd hate to come out and see a flock of fat birds living on my lakes and not be able to catch any fish. We don't inte...[/quote] Because they were there first?  Not to mention having no other means of feeding themselves or their family, unlike some....

"At the very least I get a sense of positive karma and well being from this." Careful, Ty - the tax-man will want a share of that as well, if you're not careful.... Seriously, though - and pace the "when in Rome..." brigade - it is patently absurd that French bureaucracy militates against people who are just trying to make a living.  I doubt that it's all down to protecting the poor, dumb consumer - it's just the state flexing its muscles and the fonctionaires protecting their own fairly pointless and time-serving existences!

Not sure if this is quite the right area for this question but has anyone used a UK Makro card in a Metro in France?  It's the same group and my local store reckons it's okay but the staff at Metro might just have their own ideas....

Can't agree with you there, TU.  I've been at 1500 metres in the Pyrenees for a dozen years and more (about 500 metres from Spain) and I get serious extremes of temperature and weather conditions.  The French paint has never been up to the job but decent Brit paint does a lot better.  I've had the same experience in Greece also.  It's a fag getting it here but the results are well worth it!

Do yourself a favour next time, Andy - get the paint in the UK.  The paint in France is cr*p!!!