Sprogster
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Posts posted by Sprogster
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After their difficulties with the French authorities over trying to set up a French hub in Marseilles, which was subsequently abandoned to avoid French legal action over tax and cotisastion claims against the airlines non French crews operating out of Marseilles , I have a sneaking suspicion that M O'L/Ryanair have France at the top of the list of countries they least like dealing with! Since then Ryanair have been contracting their French routes and I am sure will continue to do so if their aircraft can be operated more profitably elsewhere.
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I am intrigued, is this a wind up! With Australia having avoided going into recession, an unemployment rate half that of France, why do you think it would be easier finding work in France? According to what I read, Australia is booming thanks to it's mineral wealth resources, whereas Europe is in economic intensive care by comparison.
I think if you returned to France after a year your attitude to Australia would change fundamentally.
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For those reliant on low cost airlines to a particular destination, it is important to realise that the low fare strategy of the low cost airlines is primarily to build market share and establish new routes and they are fully aware that it is not a sustainable business model long term. Therefore, as we are seeing already fares will keep rising as profitability and shareholder dividends take priority, not to forget of course escalating government taxes on airfares..
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CV, if you are a professional pilot, you probably recognise me from PPRUNE! Anyway, you are undoubtedly aware that Ryanair flight deck crew are hardly the happiest bunnies in the world and what happened with flight safety in the USA for a time when the low cost model was pushed too far. The low cost airline model in Europe is constantly evolving and with increasing fuel costs the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet are no longer focussing on growing market share, but profitability and shareholder dividends, with fares being steadily increased accordingly. Hence the phase out by Easyjet and Ryanair of free seating, as they look to attract higher fare paying and business passengers to boost profitability.
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Georgina, you have to be brave to go on the Wavepiercer across the Channel in Winter! Condor do run a traditional slow ferry to Portsmouth but that would mean changing in Jersey.
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Can I just knock on the head any perception that low cost carriers are always low cost. The fact is that they are a business and will charge as much as they can, as a result of which in peak travel times, or when you need to travel at short notice, you can end up paying just as much as you would on a full service carrier. Ryanair are particularily opportunistic in that they double their checked in luggage fees during the school summer holidays to catch families who are unlikely to be able to travel with hand luggage only.
If you are a retiree, which most members of this forum are and can travel off peak and are not bothered about priority boarding to keep the family together, you can probably benefit a lot more from low cost airline fares than most families and business travellers can. Personally, now that BA are recommencing a three times a day Gatwick to Nice service I will avoid Easyjet, as with the forward bookings I have made BA were cheaper.
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Chiefluvie, with all respect the one item of hand luggage restriction is not the international standard model, as outside Europe with most low cost carriers including the worlds biggest which are in the USA, such as Southwest Airlines and Jet Blue, each customer is allowed one personal item (e.g. purse, briefcase, laptop) that has to fit under the seat in front of you and one carry-on bag for the overhead locker. It is the European low co's like Ryanair and Easyjet that are out of line, hence the EU involvement to impose the standard international model.
Flybe allow a second item of hand luggage if you pay for a more expensive ticket, so what is not revenue generating about that?! As for Ryanair why do they have a dimension size restriction for carry on which is unique to that airline being marginally smaller that the standard IATA model, which is difficult to find in the luggage shops, if it is not to catch some passengers unawares.
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I was stopped at the gate at Nice airport a couple of years ago whilst boarding an Easyjet flight and told my soft hand luggage case was too big, which it was not. Anyway, I was so annoyed I jumped on the case a couple of times to squash the clothes inside and it fitted in the size gauge nicely. The expression on the face of the gate agent girl was priceless!!
The big rip off with Easyjet is the annual speedy boarding pass, as by definition you cannot capacity limit the number of passengers that might have it on any one flight and on some routes as a result you can end up with over half the passengers stepping up for speeding boarding. Not surprisingly Easyjet will be rolling out paid for allocated seat reservations, as indeed are Ryanair.
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Chiefluvie, if putting duty free purchased at the airport in your hand luggage was about turnaround how come Ryanair were the only airline that implemented this requirement.
Having personally met and spoken M'OL and Stelios on several occassions recently I do know a little bit about this.
Ryanair also have a smaller unique hand luggage dimension limit, unlike Easyjet and most other airlines who conform to the larger IATA standard.
In fact the one item restriction can and does cause delays because ladies are forced to put their hand bag in their hand luggage and the first thing they often do after boarding is block the aisle whilst retreiving their handbags from their hand luggage so they have access to it during the flight! Chaps are also offenders retrieving laptops and ipads! -
The EU Parliament has voted to outlaw the 'excessive' one item of hand luggage restriction imposed by some low cost carriers like Ryanair and Easyjet. Instead airlines operating in the EU will be compelled to allow passengers to bring on board other items such as a handbag, laptop and duty free purchases. The new law is expected to come into effect on a date to be announced after the consultation period ends on the 11th March. This brings the low cost carriers in line with scheduled airlines such as BA and although it may surprise some, the origins of the one item of hand luggage restriction was a post 9/11 security measure that some low cost carriers decided to retain as a revenue raising exercise when the security rules were eased some years ago. M O'L must be spitting blood!
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I was looking forward to the last episode with Provence being in my neck of the woods, but thought it the most disappointing of the series, as RB's caricature of a Frenchman got more irritating and to be honest heavily urbanised coastal Province around Marseilles & Toulon is not really the real Province and they did not identify the rural areas he briefly visited.
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Eurotrash, I am thinking more about the tax and social security implications in terms of unmitigated disaster, as it is not unheard of for individuals having to pay social security contributions in two countries on the same salaried income, which unlike tax cannot be offset against each other.
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I can only endorse the OP's in that you absolutely must obtain specialist advice from a suitable qualified accountant experienced in French and UK tax/social security matters. Ideally, you should delay your move until that advice is obtained, as I have come across many clients who only seek advice after their move, by which time it is often too late to avoid an unmitigated disaster.
Personally, I would also be worried as to whether or not your hands on type of business lends itself to being controlled properly from another country and being a licensed child care business the attitude of the UK authorities to this.
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My guess is that they are flight testing a new engine variant and it has a cowling painted in a different colour for easier identification purposes.
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I suppose the risk is that the UK could decide to crack down on issuing new S1's to UK retirees who have worked in another EU country prior to retiring there, if they cotton on to the fact that they could save money in the process.
Either way it is an area of uncertainty that needs to be taken into account by someone nearing State retirement age who is considering the AE route to French health care.
If you are in good health three or four years of private health insurance might be less hassle and cost than the AE route.
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Where can you buy them in France, as my search has been fruitless so far!
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EmilyA, I will leave it to the OP's that are better informed than me to comment further, but it seems that in your type of situation it can go either way and good fortune therefore plays a part as how Newcastle deals with matters in deciding whether or not to issue an S1.
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Bill, I would hold off any fiscal planning until after the Presidential elections in May/June, as if Mnsr Hollande wins there invariably will be a lot of changes. Even under the current administration, the tax rules seem to be in constant flux with changes being announced off the hoof almost on a weekly basis!
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Mrs B, in a nutshell if you are looking to move to France as early retirees and don't want to work by setting up an AE, your only option is to take out comprehensive private medical insurance to cover the period from the expiration of your E106/S1 until your husband reaches UK State retirement age, when the UK government will cover your French health care through an S1. The fact that your husband has medication for cholesterol, reflux and osteo-arthritis in itself should not in itself prevent you obtaining comprehensive medical insurance cover, but might increase the cost of premiums.
If your husband is 59, you may have to only cover the cost of private health insurance for up to four years, against the downside of setting up an AE is that once you reach State retirement age you will have to contribute 8% of your retirement income over a certain amount for ever and that cost could easily exceed over time the cost of four years private health insurance.
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I recall reading a thread elsewhere that suggested setting up under the AE regime close to UK state retirement age was not a good idea, as it then stopped you qualifying for French health care under your S1, which is financially the more attractive route as it costs you nothing. I believe that by setting up an AE and joining via that way you have committed yourself to life long cotisations, even when you are fully retired.
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Fred, most Brits in France, as are members of this forum and other similar French forums, tend to be either retirees or second home owners and more often than not are far from affluent. (According to Eurostat there are only around 30,000 Brits working in France, which is a small percentage of the number of Brits who are estimated to own homes there.)
In fact it is self evident from a lot of posts that a significant number of Brits struggle to live in France, as either they are on a low fixed pension income that has fallen greatly in euro terms in recent years with the weak £, or if they are still of working age they cannot find adequate work in France. Don't forget that unemployment in France is higher than the UK. The result of this is a high return rate to the UK, especially for those Brits that need to earn a living in France, which some estimate to be as high as 85%.
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My understanding is that the 8 year rule only applies to quoted shares on a recognised stock exchange. This was introduced in 2006 and the holding period is taken from 1 January 2006, so shares owned prior to that date need to be retained until 2014 before full exemption will apply. However, whether this generous allowance will survive until 2014 is a good question, especially with the likelihood of a socialist President in a few months.
It certainly makes investment in real estate, other than your primary residence, far less attractive for French residents with the new thirty year rule that applies to real estate and it will be interesting to see the impact in the longer term on the French property market.
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On the same principle you could say that the Channel Islands should be given back to France and the Isle of Man to Ireland! The difficulty being though is that it would be a little more problematic to subject the combined British population of the Crown Dependencies amounting to 250,000 people to any such change!
The USA of course has far more overseas territories these days than the UK, including the US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, US Marshall Islands, a chunk of Cuba, the Hawaiian Islands, plus other assorted Pacific and Indian Ocean territories.
As for Argentina, with the economy in the tank, their President needs political distractions and what better than whip up anti British sentiment over the Falklands. A bit like President Sarkosy!
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Glad it went well Chancer.
I had a polyp removed from my Colon about ten years ago and like you need to have a follow up colonoscopy every five years, as if you have had one I have been told you are likely to develop more as you get older. But the good news is that only a minority of polyps become cancerous and it can take up to ten years, so as long as any new polyps are cropped colon cancer is almost totally preventable. In fact in some countries like Japan, everyone over the age of fifty is automatically screened by being given a colonoscopy, and if it was not for the cost there is a strong medical case for all countries to follow suit.
So if you are over the age of fifty and have any history of colon cancer in your family speak to your doctor about getting screened by having a colonoscopy!
One item of hand luggage restriction to be outlawed by EU.
in Travelling to/from France
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