Later

I'm no expert, but I don't think tax free PEP's and ISA's (or SIPPS for that matter) are recognised under French tax law.  I seem to recall reading somewhere that you would be better off selling the lot before moving to France.  But as with all these things it is best to take professional advice.  It wouldn't surprise me if the gains were treated as unearned income, which would also attract cotisations.

Don't forget that if you are resident in France then your employer will also be lible to cotisations, even if you are employed by a UK company, but resident in France.  In the UK cotisations (NI) are about  13%.  In France they are likely to be about 40% (this is in addition to the income tax and cotistations paid by you personally).

Thank you Leslauriers and P.  P, would you mind if I contacted your accountant directly by email?  I would be really pleased if he could give me some advice - which I would expect to for.

Can anyone tell me if unearned income attracts cotisations? In particular I am thinking about dividends.

I've just read somewhere else on the Forum that dividends are treated as unearned income which attracts cotisations.  Can anyone shed light on this? - I think I'll post that as a separate question,

BJ thanks for bringing that to my attention.  It's very sobering indeed. The IT consultants in those posts were saying they pay 60% stoppages on their income. That means they work for eight months of the year just to pay their income tax and other charges.

Hi.  Does anyone know how dividends are treated, with respect to French tax liabilty, when paid by an English company to a shareholder tax domiciled in France? I know this sounds like a stupid question because it seems very unlikely, but does anybody know if dividend payments attract cotisations? Thanks in advance.

 I'm trying to figure this out for myself.  Took some advice last week and was told that I would probably pay 50.4% equivalent of income tax and NI and my employer (in my case my own small company based in England) would pay a whacking great 40% cotisations on top of that.  Which means that for every euro I received the French authorities would get something like €1.80 (and they will get some VAT on top of this amount).  That is, in order for me to get €1 in my pocket, I have to earn €2, half of which goes in income tax and cotisations that I am due to pay, and then on top of this my employer will pay 40 cents for each of the two euros I need to earn in order to get my €1, which means my employer will pay an additional 40 + 40 = 80 cents.  This means my employer needs to generate €3.32 (with VAT) just so I can have €1. 

Speaking of badgers, I once saw a badger-like animal crossing the road in Switzerland.  No idea what it was, but thought it looked a bit like a wolverine, or a badger in grey / brown. Was driving back from a rural restaurant where I thought I had ordered a horse sized piece of cow, when, to my horror, I had in fact ordered and eaten a horse sized piece of horse.  

Patf, that is an excellent idea.  I have given most of her clothes away to charities, but have kept some back for my childrens' memory boxes.  By co-incidence found a stash of her clothes in a cupboard in my daughters bedroom this afternoon.  Hope they still have her smell (for lack of a better word) on them.

In my experience goats are completely indiscriminate - they'll eat anything, including the washing off your neighbour's line.  Given this and also that they are quite price conscious and that you will be trying to sell into an open market, I think you will find that goats don't make very good customers.  This type of customer goes for the cheapest (or free) offering on the one proviso that it is digestible - which could reek havoc on your profit margins.  What about establishing an arrangement with boutique food shops in the UK?

The more time I spend thinking about this subject, the more I think it is all about "mindset".  If you have the right mindset, particularly the ability to cope when things don't turn out the way you expected them to, or things aren't as you thought they would be and you have some notion of what you're getting yourself into, then IMO a move to France could be a very satisfying and rewarding experience.   

Catalpa - I agree entirely. You know there is something else in all this in that it is a two way thing.  Ian and our other dog Bertie are helping me (and my two and four year old kids) to carry on when one might otherwise think the world has come to an end.  To take one's mind off one's self and think about others (even if they are dogs). To carry on with a routine.   To bring smiles to our faces and walk and play when we might otherwise be moping around the house.  I think dogs are very loving creatures and ours are very much part of our family.  A couple of nights ago I let the dogs up on the sofa (from which they are normally banned) while I sat watching TV and I spent a couple of hours with my arms around them.  No substitute for my wife, but I think we all felt better for it We are all very lucky to have such creatures in our lives.

Kind of difficult to put this any other way - I didn't really want to mention it, but my wife died three weeks ago after a nine month fight with cancer.  Ian (lurcher (sp?) Alsation cross) was my wife's dog.  He is quite highly strung.  I can't see anything on his leg that might be causing the problem re the licking.

Very sound point.  I shall go and bite my dogs to reassert my position in the pack.  I wonder if it works on children too?

Perhaps if Noel Coward had met our Dad's, his famous song would be Mad Englishmen and Dogs ...

Hello TiffanyS Something very sad happened in our family three weeks ago and I've been so caught up in it all that is wasn't until last week, when I gave him a brush, that I noticed he is just skin and bones.  Since then I've been keeping an eye on him.  He's lost interest in food, doesn't want to go for walks, sleeps for long periods (more than normal), has become very aggressive to our other dog, is licking the same spot on this foreleg, doesn't like being left alone, keeps coming to me for reassurance.  Sorry to anthropomorphise, but he looks sad.  Have made an appointment to see the vet, but would appreciate other peoples' thoughts about what I can do.

Can one choose from a range of tattoo designs, or are you stuck with the bar code and numbers the tattooist gives you?  I think my Alsation Lurcher (sp?) would prefer something manly that reflects his disdain for cats and other small furry animals.  Whereas my Jack would be delighted with something vulgar that tells the world what a great and prolific lover he is (indifferent to gender or species).  My cat would settle for "I hate dogs".

More of a dog question than a France question.  I think my dog Ian (the larger of the two in the adjacent photo) is depressed.  Any suggestions about what I should do?  Is there such a thing as doggy Prozac?

Mr Fox?

Perhaps you should do as my father did. When I was in my early teens we had a Rhodesian Ridgeback called James who used to get very excited when my father rode off on his motorcycle to do this or that on the farm.  One day James bit my father on the ankle as he rode past.  That night Dad waited until James was fast asleep at his feet in front of the fire and leaned down and bit him on the back leg.  Never again did James bite another human being.  Strangely enough Dad didn't do the same to my parrot when it savaged his ear lobe - very cunning birds parrots - not having ear lobes n'all. 

Alan I wonder if a Micro-Bic isn't the answer for you?  There is a move afoot to make it easier for small business start-ups and maybe it's not as bad as you think it will be -although I reckon it's at least twice as expensive to run a business in France as it is in the UK.

Jond Big private sector industry will only ever employ small(ish) part of the working population.  In countries like Britain is is only a very small percentage of the population.  Most private sector jobs are in small companies, sole traders and parnerships and this is where you need independent thinkers.   Most western countries emply a significant part of the population in government, social services and health.  The biggest single emplyer in the UK is the NHS. 

SaligoBay, yes that "only so many hours in the day" thing sort of gets in the way.

I think our time is up.  China will be the manufacturing centre of the world and India the IT capital.  Russia is determined to reassert itself on the world stage.  Where does this leave us?  Overpriced, oversusbisided and overspent.  Most western countries are not facing up to the implications of all this.  And France in particular seems not to have grasped this.  As Dad's Army would have it, we're doomed!  It may not affect us, but it will have a profound effect upon our childrens' lives.  I don't know what the answer is, but I'm sure that inflexible mindsets and an inability to adapt are not going to help us, British or French.   Putting this into perpsective re the original post, this "we're doomed" scenario leaves me as worried as anything for my kids.  I expect the worst and will do everything I can to prepare them for the worst - and in the case of language support, I wouldn't expect the French school system to make allowances for my English children and I would fully expect to bolster their learning with additional teaching - probably paid for.  And if I couldn't afford it, then I'd explore creative solutions like bartering my time teaching English in exchange for someone else's time teaching my kids French.