anneb

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]I'm sorry, I do not know what the French tax consequences are for a French resident who inherits funds from a UK estate. I would hope that under reciprocal agreements they would not be taxed again but no doubt someone versed in French tax laws will be able to comment. [/quote] They would not be taxed twice. I was in the opposite position with my parents dying domicled in France and myself a UK resident. The inheritance tax was paid only in France and it would be the same the other way round because of tax agreements between France and the UK :-)

I think I must have misunderstood what the Cotorep was. I thought it was a kind of general package of help for disabled people, including supported help to work for those disabled but still capable of work as well help for those who cannot work at all. What kind of help is available for disabled people in France who cannot work at all ?

Ah, I didn't know that parking badges were valid in all EU countries, I was thinking of things like that, thanks.

So is it only available if a person is a full time resident ? What about a disabled person resident for half a year ? Anne

If a person is disabled and on long term Incapacity Benefit and spending long periods in France, say five or six months of the year but under the 183 days for domicile purposes, can they still apply for the Cotorep ? Anne

David: I did exactly as you said about Spam settings three weeks ago on the advice of NTL's technical support department. Despite doing this roughly 25% of my group mail (Yahoo) is not getting through to my NTL address but all of it is getting through to my Wanadoo address. There are other mails missing from NTL, like confirmation of orders from Amazon and I don't know how many other mails. NTL are just denying this problem and not appearing to try and fix it. I found a list called 'NTL Hell' where everyone is talking about this problem. Nev: I have just sent a test message from my Wanadoo account to my NTL account and it came through fine. My main problem is Yahoo list mail not getting through to NTL. I wish NTL would listen.... Anne

Which shows it's NTL doesn't it. I wish NTL would listen :-( Anne

PS...I don't think it can be anything to do with NTL regarding Yahoo or Wanadoo as Spam mail. NTL technical support adivsed me to turn off my Spam filters on the server which I did and mail that is Spam is now sent to me. But still the mails are not delivered to NTL. But I just did a test message from my Wanadoo address to my NTL address and it was received fine :-) bw's Anne

I am using NTL and Wanadoo to get all my list mail from user groups I'm on....ie getting my list mail sent to both addresses. This is because I'm a moderator of a Yahoo list and need to see all the mails but NTL are having dreadful problems and mails are not being delivered to NTL addresses. Last week I had 73 Yahoo group mails bounced from my NTL address but none from my Wanadoo one. I have been on the telephone to NTL about this many times over the past four weeks and they deny there is a problem. But there is and it even happens to themselves as several emails I sent their technical support department were returned to me as undeliverable. Wanadoo are blameless ! bw's Anne

PS... see my mail above...if you die 'intestate'' your sister would inherit.

Hi John, It says in the guide to French successon law that I posted the link to in an earlier post, that : "Your surviving spouse is a protected heir if you have no living decendants or ascendants. Other relatives or unmarried partners are not protected heirs". So from my reading of that, your partner would be a protected heir if you do get married, once your parents have passed on that is, but if you don't get married you'd have no protected heirs once your parents are gone in which case it would be vital that you write a French Will clearly stating your wishes so that you do not die 'intestate' under French law. bw's Anne

Hi John, 'Protected heirs' (héritiers réservataires): under French Inheritance Law you cannot leave your assets to whoever you want like you can under English Inheritance Law. The 'reserved portion' has to go to your 'protected heirs' first. These protected heirs are firstly your children and, if there are none, your parents. The 'reserved portion' when there are children, is half if there is one child, two thirds if there are two children, three quarters if there are three children and so on. You cannot cut your children out of your will under French law. Even illegitimate children have equal rights to legitimate ones. Children and parents come before spouses who are not 'protected' which is why there's always so much discussion about this on this forum and others. I don't know what the reserved portion is if there are no children and only parents...it's too complicated ! If you are domiciled in France (that is living there more than 183 days out of the year) then all your worldwide assets come under French Law. If you are domiciled in the UK then only your French property comes under French law. Hope this helps ! Anne

We're with the BNP. No charge for a current account with cheque book, though internet access costs €0.5 per time which I think is a bit off. Our CB/Visa card costs €44 per year, but when I complained and said I really only needed a basic CB card our bank manager gave us a 50% discount ! I think it's a good idea to be friendly with the manager of your bank. Ours getting a Christmas card from us :-) Btw, I love the way that in France I know our bank manager and we shake hands every time I see him. In the UK I haven't a clue who my bank manager is and I don't think he or she has a clue who I am. The French are so nice :-)

From what I understand, with an SCI, French Inheritance law is only avoided if the shareholder dies domiciled in England.

[quote]Hi Anne, You seem very knowledgable on this topic; are you a lawyer yourself ? As to the situation with my friend's will, I simply explained what the notaire told us. He has a copy of the will and...[/quote] Hi Joan, I'm not a lawyer, but my parents lived in France for over thirty years and when my mother died three years ago I was involved with French inheritance and then when my father died a year later I was involved in it again only more so as I was the executor of my father's English Will. Even though my parents had done everything more or less 'right', the process was still complicated and convoluted, not to say highly stressful, and I had a massive amount of work to do for the Probate Registery to enable them to Grant Probate - Probate only being needed if the deceased has any assets in England as banks etc in England will only release assets on production of Grant of Probate. English banks etc do not recognise the French Certificat d'Hérédité or Acte de Notoriété which you could loosely call the French equivalent. Conversley, in France English Probate is not recognised, but the Certificat d'Hérédité or Acte de Notoriété are easy to obtain by comparison ! Because I was so very much involved with the Probate Registry and because Probate is not straight forward I became very involved with the French notaire's side of things too. Anyway, when an English person dies domiciled in France (living there for more than 183 days of the year) then the Probate Registry will be very concerned before they grant Probate to see that they will not be breaking the inheritance laws of France, and so they will need to see certified copies of all French inheritance documents relating to the deceased before they will issue the Grant. If your friend only stayed in France for holidays totaling less than 183 days per year then his domicile will be England and things should be straight forward....but I see you say he lived in France for 14 years ! If your friend's house was purchased with an SCI then it's true that it can be left to whoever the deceased wills as it's not covered by French inheritance law apart from the tax side, but that is if the deceased dies domiciled in England. If an English person is living in France for more than 183 days of the year then both the French and English will count them as domiciled in France and then all their worldwide assets come under French inheritance law. I think your friend's beneficiary would do well to get in touch with your deceased friend's executor in England at this stage in time ! I see you say she is seeing a lawyer specialising in French law....yes that's what I did too and this lawyer tried to get things moving at the Probate Registry and was practically tearing her hair out ! bw's Anne