Sprogster

If wiring funds you can get nearer the spot rate, but if you are a tourist using a bank's bureau de change, which is what a tourist would do, then you get nowhere near the spot rate if using the main UK high street banks.

What does not help is that the £ is still much weaker against the euro than it was a few years ago and though there was some sign of the £ strengthening, it has fizzled out and is back around 1.21. This means a tourist rate of around 1.17. The 75% tax rate has proved an unmitigated PR disaster for France and for what benefit, as it was only anticipated around 1,150 taxpayers would be effected with a tax take of euro 350 million a year for two years, which is peanuts against the probable loss of inward investment that will result from the perception France is anti wealth.

This is one of the reasons clients I have dealt with are usually advised if at all possible to move at the beginning of a new tax year to avoid complications, as I believe your accountant is correct in that you make full disclosure for the year, but are only taxed from the day of arrival in France.

I had little sympathy for the Brit winemaker, as he knew that the Languedoc suffered from a serious problem with over production of wine and that other vineyards in the region were dropping like nine pins, looking for naive Brits to buy them out before they went bust! As for the USA, unless you have a US citizen as immediate family who can sponsor you, or marry one, permanent immigration to the USA is all but impossible these days for a Brit, unless you are a rocket scientist or well know actor. However, there is a non immigration business visa issued by the US State Department to those who buy a qualifying business in the USA and employ a minimum required number of US citizens, and this restricts the individual granted the visa to only working for the business concerned, although their partner is allowed to find other employment. The big problem with this visa is that it is impossible to convert to a Green Card and permanent US residence no matter how long you are in the USA, is subject to renewal every three years and as soon as you sell the business, it goes bust, or employs less than the minimum required number of US citizens the visa is cancelled and you have to leave the US. Also when your children reach 21 they are no longer covered by their parents business visa and have to leave the country. This was demonstrated last week by the Florida couple who were put on the plane back to the UK and I would imagine the couple shown this week are facing the same fate. Therefore, both Brit couples knew like other Brits in Florida who mostly use this route, that they would have to leave the USA one day, as all attempts by Brit expat groups in the USA to get the authorities to offer the ability to convert to a Green Card if their businesses are successful over a period of time, have been given short thrift by the immigration authorities.

Aly, I believe that the French government expect to raise no more than 300 million euros from 1500 taxpayers, so the new tax is largely symbolic. However, it has been a PR disaster for France and the concern is that it gives the wrong message to international investors and puts off foreign investment and associated job creation.

The article is totally misleading, as it is only French women that have a longer average life expectancy. French men have a lower average life expectancy than men in the UK. Presumably, French men do not eat Roquefort!!

According to a contributor on the other French Forum I participate in who lives in the area, the producers were really struggling to find sufficient participants for the current series, to the extent they were stopping people in the market and hassling members of a local forum. This could explain why in my opinion the second series is not as good as the first, which in itself was not exactly brilliant! Important to realise that these types of so called reality programmes are far more contrived than you might think, with most of the events specifically arranged for filming. The technique is that the producers construct a definite narrative, rather than rely on the unscripted ramblings of participants to hold audience interest. Also the main participants will have signed a contract for which there will be some form of consideration.  

For a programme called Little England, a bit strange that the women running the tea shop had an antipodean accent and the lady involved in the 500 year war re-enactment had a South African accent! Geoffrey Palmer's tongue in cheek narration turns the programme into a bit of a p*** take of most of the participants, who in many cases are presented as a caricature of unintegrated little englanders abroad. Interestingly the introduction refers to 20,000 Brits living in the Dordogne area compared to 30,000 mentioned in the opening credits of the last series.

Chiefluvvie is absolutely correct, in that the acknowledgements used when French people meet strangers are not endearing but a formality they are taught as a child, in the same way Americans say have a good day. So whilst we Brits might find them endearing in fact they a taught way to greet and say goodbye, that the French use automatically without thinking.

The French are far better at killing and maiming themselves on the roads!!

Ivor, I don't think we are talking about being fluent in French, far from it, it is just a bit cringe worthy that some of the participants in Little England who have been in France several years, don't seem to have even the basics!

I have found the second series of Little England boring and have given up watching it. The fact that there have been so few comments about the new series presumably indicates I am not the only one. By comparison I have enjoyed the similar programme shown on the same channel regarding expats in Corfu. I do agree that many of the participants are not shown in the best light and a better title would be an idiot abroad, if Ricky Gervais had not got there first!

I was quite interested to read this week several articles about a respected international report and accompanying league table ranking countries worldwide on their educational systems, standards and results and to my surprise France was poorly rated and not even in the top twenty, whereas the UK was much more highly rated and in the top twenty. I have tried to post the link but am travelling at the moment and my iPad won't allow me. So maybe the perception some Brit expats seem to have about the French educational system being better than the UK is incorrect.

I think that people that do not believe in funerals miss the point in that according to psychologists there is a benefit in helping give closure to friends and relatives. Therefore, whilst an elaborate ceremony is unnecessary some form of send off is important to help those left behind get through the grieving process.

Chancer, the other two French Forums I am a member of have also seen a substantive decline in posting activity in recent years. One of them is a bit busier but mainly thanks to one poster and a lot of posts from members desperate to sell up and return to the UK. A clue to a reason why is that according to recent UK home office statistics the number of Brit retirees leaving the UK to live abroad peaked in 2006 at 22,000, but last year had declined to 4,000. On the basis most Brits moving to France are retirees and early retirees, this explains a lot! Last but not least it is clear from the French forums a lot of Brits seem to be leaving France. The poor economy, weak £ and UK house prices also have had an effect. Add to this the French health care changes for early retirees and rising expense of living in France. Another factor is the demise of the peak time TV programmes about buying property abroad that were so prevalent in the UK .

It is worth knowing that vaccinations and boosters are far less effective as we get older, as the immune system gets progressively weaker as we age and therefore those over the age of fifty need to be careful in recognising that a vaccine they receive may have limited effectiveness. That is one of the reasons the flu vaccine is given every year, not just because the prevalent flu viruses change. Also last year the UK government announced it would stop providing the pneumonia vaccination to those over 65, as it has been proven it is not effective for that age group.  

If you do not pay the £3 fee to choose a seat, you are allocated seats when you check in and apparently families will be sat together. Just like the old days. The rugby scrum that ensued with free boarding was putting some passengers off, especially families and the elderly. Also the hoards of passengers queuing up at gates long before they opened so they could be amongst the first to board and avoid the middle seats, or crowding around departure screens ready for the sprint to the gate, was causing obstructions at some airports! The argument of the two low cost carriers that have free seating was that it saved time, but when Easyjet trialled allocated seating this summer, they found that not to be the case. Even Ryanair is adding another two rows of allocated seating.

I think it is fair to say that those of us already in France is prejudiced, having made the decision already! The only disappointment for me is the weather, as even on the Med the winter can be cold, wet and miserable and in recent years spring and autumn has become much more unsettled. If I recall correctly there are a few members of this forum who venture further south from France to escape the worst of the winter.

Alkin, most Brits resident in France and members of this and other similar French forums tend to be early retirees or retirees in their late fifties, sixties and seventies. I don't know your area but on the assumption it is rural, you will find the younger people in France have been gravitating over the last decade or so to the cities for work, hence the older demographic you may be experiencing. There was a period between 2002 to 2008 when some younger Brits with families were moving to France to give it a go, but that seems to have petered out with the economic crisis, weak £ and difficulty in finding work in France. Enjoy your seven months in France, but I am curious you choose to stay over winter, as much of rural France goes into hibernation behind closed shutters that time of year.

For most retirees the weather would be high up the wish list, especially in winter where a warmer climate can save you a fortune in heating costs. Northern Europe which includes France is just not far enough south, to meet the winter weather criteria. Spain of course includes the Canary Islands and although not my cup of tea, they are cheap to get to and winter temps are in the low twenties, so very popular with Brit retirees. My confidence in the French health system has been shaken recently, when I learnt that France is at the bottom of the European league table for survivability after a heart attack or stroke.

In today's Daily Telegraph there is another of these survey articles researched by an insurance company to identify 'The best places to retire abroad'. Factors taken into account included house prices, health care costs, average temperatures, rainfall and hours of sunshine, grocery bills, crime rates and taxation. They are as follows: 1) Malta 2) Portugal 3) Spain 4) Barbados 5) United States 6) Australia 7) Thailand 8) Jamaica 9) Morocco 10) Greece No explanation of the obvious missing country, but France is expensive by comparison and being the most northern country presumably would get low points for weather.

The French suicide rate of 14.6 people per 100,000 is double that of the UK and the worst in Europe after Finland.

The OP last posted nearly five years ago and the website for their French greeting card business no longer exists, so may not be in France anymore.

In the situation of a Brit retiree spending 6 months a year in France with his wife still living and working in the UK, I can state categorically that HMRC will still treat the OP as UK tax resident and there are two recent court cases to back this up. (Gaines-Copper) The French Fisc will be quite happy, as they would apply exactly the same criteria to a French national who spent six months a year in the UK. Otherwise, it would be too easy for the wealthy French to avoid the new higher French taxes, by spending half the year in London. Unless you are going abroad for a genuine contract of employment, if the centre of your family life remains resident in the UK it is now impossible to become non UK resident, as you have to meet the new clean break test.

idun, you have missed the main point in that the OP says his wife will continue to live and work in the UK during the six months, apart from the summer holidays. Therefore there are no issues concerning an empty house in the UK, or entitlement to NHS care. Under the new UK residence rules the OP will still be clearly UK tax resident, as long as his wife is working and resident in the UK.