Hereford

Fridgeman:  We have pm'd you. H.

We insist on radio 4 too!  Just about to get a laptop for use when cricket on radio 4 longwave - aaaah.  Our computer is in a study above the (totally separate) garage so cannot listen from there into the house.  No question of doing it ourselves, the house is quite tall and no way are either of us going up there.  In any case it would be hard to find any two people quite so untechnological. (We are accountants so that says a lot...). Only one, final question: why the statement about TNT box and charge lasting for "at least 3 years"? Is this because it will be switched off then or just change please? Thanks H.

Thanks for all these answers.  Our thought was that perhaps two dishes is the simplest!  We have room on our chimney which is already disfigured by one dish so cannot really be worse with two!  Not sure about €80 box + dish offers though. Our local "Expert" sells the box for around €100 but dish etc is extra,. They have an advertising leaflet with a list of the UK programmes you can get!  Where else should we look - does anyone know please? To answer re programmes:  we did not really want Uk tv as we are not great tv watchers but are fed up with no English language entertainment channel on Canalsat (we used on TPS to get BBC Prime).  We are paying €26.90 a month to watch a little French tv (quizzes to improve our listening skills) and BBC World for news. This we object to.. Thanks again, especially to Martinwatkins. H.

We have read both the January thread and the recent one, but are duffers at this so are still not sure what we need to do.  We currently have a dish to receive Canalsat. We were "migrated" from TPS and are most unhappy with the loss of channels.  We are considering changing to TNT by satellite for the French channels and then the basic free channel digibox for UK - which we don't have at all at present.  The dish we have would become ours if we cancel. We have looked on the ausene.fr site but it seems to us that he has shut?  What is a "visiostat" dish please? (We did say we were duffers...) and how much are they?  At a pinch we could presumably have two dishes, one for each "country". How do we then get whichever one we want to show on the TV? We would get a professional to do any installation but we feel it would help if we are claear in our minds what needs to be done. Many, many thanks H.

Don't worry - you will get to use your French.  I joined a French sewing group in order to use mine.  Try to find a group that appeals.  We are in your position: no neighbours nearby at all, so often speak little French during the week.  Watch French tv (Yes most is terrible..), quizzes are great for keeping up your knowledge and learning new phrases. Good luck Mrs H

Thanks for such quick responses.  We are in Manche, so if anyone actually knows if new joiners need photos here I would be grateful.  We will probably suggest photos are taken as it is really annoying to be turned away with one thing missing. Thanks to all Mrs H.

We have been asked to go with a newly arrived English couple when they go to CPAM to register with their E106s (they speak very little French). We have told them they need:  Passports, marriage certificate, "long" birth certifcates, RIB, proof of address (we assume a rental agreement will do this).  Our question is:  As Cartes Vitales now are being issued with photographs do they need to take these on the initial visit to CPAM.?  It would seem a pity to have to go back just with photos! Thanks Mrs H.

Christine A. My daughter saw the tick, thought it was dirt (grandson is six) but realised it had legs!  Telephoned child's dioctor (in Germany children see paediatricians always), doc not there so took him to her own GP who removed tick and said if circle with line outside appears (like someon else posted a "bullseye") to telephone him again (on a Sunday morning..) and he would immediately give antbiotics.   Said bullseye appeared so he is on strong antib. for 10 days and if not completely gone by then will have a second lot.  Apparently only about 70% of people get this first stage. They are the lucky ones as it can be completely cured with antibs He saw his own doc yesterday who will take over treatment. My daughter was told that you should never try to remove tick yourself, even if you can get them to "let go"as  if they "puke" inside you (to use her words!) then you are in trouble anyway. Nasty things Take care everyone. Mrs H

Not a pet (!) but my grandson was diagnosed over the week-end  with first stage Lyme's disease - from a tick bite.  Extra strong antibiotics for 10 days to start with and possibly a second lot will do the trick we are told. Never try to pull the ticks out, go to a doctor. Mrs H

I am in France and suffer from hay-fever.  You can get individual sachets of anti-allergy eye drops here (and in Germany where I first found them) They are wonderful at stopping the itching.  I cannot imagine any problem with pregnancy with eye drops.  Try the local pharmacy/Boots.  Also in France I have been prescribed a nasal spray (Nasacort) which says "speak to your Doctor if pregnant" but does not say it cannot be used.  I never bothered with asking a doctor about allergies in the UK but I would in your daughters position. Good luck. Mrs H

Hi Jackie Got the pm but the link to answer you does not work. So: we just went back in as if to do the declaration the first time and somewhere it asks if you want to "amend" the return as the computer knows you have done it once.  I seem to remember it made us go through all the forms again, not to add figures again but just to verify. I find it odd that you could not enter the tax on your teachers pension, surely it goes in the same section as the salary but further along?  In another thread (re dividends) it says "you can get a 2042C by ticking a box in section 8". H.

Yes the forms are all the same on the screen, althopugh they go page by page in smaller chunks.  You can choose the forms you want to fill in. You can only do it online from the second year (you probably already know that) and you have to register first. You get an immediate receipt for the return but all subsequent avis etc are sent by post as usual to you.  We pay monthly by prelevement (sorry no accents) but I think you do have to pay online or similar if not doing this. You can print off the information you have entered before pressing go!  We failed to do this last year and realised later that one item had not stayed in place (you can "save" as you go along). We filed a correction, also online and all was well.  We have done ours this year.  All boxes are present. The figures for box TI come from the red form 2047 and you can write words etc and fill in all the columns just as you would by hand.  We have never tried to "write" extra notes. Hope this helps H. Edit: If by "calculator" you mean the simulation of your tax bill, then no you can't do that if you have foreign income but forms can still be completed as above.

Thanks for comments.  We have printed off latest Dr Orloff para. and will give it to our friend. Also check that we do the same with our rent (althought we have never been charged).  No we are not muddling up anything to CMU - we are on an E121 and so is our friend. Are there any other "posters" who have been charged this imposition? Mrs. H

Interersting isn't it this reply from the tax officer mentionned above - not I think the answer we were expecting. You don't pay tax on your rent because your property is in UK, but you have to pay social levies because you live in france > I  hope the above information will help you, I am staying at your service > Pierre vergne inspecteur des Impôts We have never been charged on our own rents.  Does by any chance age matter? or having an E121? Mrs H

Brilliant, thanks to all.  Mrs H

Thanks for such speedy responses. Can this lady be emailed in English or should it be French please? My friend did put the rent in the boxes as described above - as do we for our own UK rental income.  We have never been charged social contributions but we have a different tax office! Mrs H.

We have read the Tax FAQ's below (although we have sent in several returns here in France).  One paragrah confirms our opinion that rent from a house in the Uk does not generate social charges here in France. A friend has been to her tax office twice now to query this - she has been charged them - and the person she sees is adamant that although no tax is due social charges are. In the past we have seen reference to a French tax authority (sorry not very well explained) you can email, in English, with queries. Does anyone know the "address" please?  Or indeed somewhere official she could email in French so that she has something to take to her tax office. Thanks Mrs H. (PS I posted a while ago about this but at that point my friend had been told the social charges were on her incapacity benefit..)

Spooks! So we will never know what happened.. Never mind.

Lynda & Richard: The programmes we are missing are BBC Prime and Bloomberg in English, plus others that we did not actually watch.  We agree that the contract probably says that but we have been forcibly "migrated£ (their word) so feel that we could say we do not agree to this and TPS must accept a cancellaton.  We are composing a strong letter of complaint so will see what happens, if anything! H.

We are certainly thinking of cancelling. Our renewal date is January but a french friend is sure we could cancel on the basis that they have broken the contract - not us.  We can see also that we have been transferred to a "package" which is €5 cheaper than we are currently paying and yet we are told that our payment will "reste le même". Any more comments welcome H.

We did not want, nor do we really want now, to have all the UK tv programmes. We therefore subscribed to TPS which gave us access to all French tv but also amongst others BBC World and BBC Prime.  We watched a few programmes on BBC Prime as our only access to an English language "leisure" channel.  TPS has now merged with Canalplus and we are all to be "migrated" over to Canalsat.  Our letter from TPS about this says "vous continuez a profiter des chaines que vous appreciez deja". Our migration was done this afternoon and we now find that BBC Prime has disappeared. A check on the BBC Prime website confirms (via a FAQ) that we have indeed lost this channel.  Other channels too have dispappeared including an interactive meteo, also Bloomberg is now only the French edition not the English. We (or Mrs H anyway) are furious, not least because we watched part one of a programme last friday so we will miss part two!  We feel this is grounds for cancelling our contract but this leaves the question: what do we then have? Anyone else in this position?  Can we send loads of letters complaining?  We have tried to email canalsat but as we do not yet know our new Client number the site will not let us. in frustration, wife is grinding her teeth. H.

Thanks for replies.  The link from "Cat" is the same map that was printed (very small!!) in the article again this week.  It seems anyway as though the actual "on the ground" route will not be definite for many months yet.  We are within the 300 metre suggested route and have been lobbying hard locally. Mrs H

The article today says that the Government have approved the project and shows a very small map which is impossible to relate to actual villages.  Is this the so called "preferred route"? Can anyone (Catalpa !!) point us at a website which shows the route please?  We did have this but seem to have lost it. It seems as if the actual final route on the ground will be decided during 2009, so we all have a long wait yet. Mrs H.

Thanks for this reply.  She is adamant that it was puit in the right box (i.e. the box we told her). We have sent in four tax returns including our rent and have never been charged CSG.  Our friend has an E121 for disability so does not contribute to the CMU. We will make sure we see what box she uses this year and see what happens! H.

I recently posted a query regarding the charging of Social charges on an Invalidity pension.  Our friend has now tackled her tax office over this and they tell her that it was not the pension that was being charged but her UK rent received (the figures being almost identical). We have UK rent and have never been charged for Social charges on this.  UK rent is "non-imposable" for tax in France and we had assumed this applied to Social charges too and therefore our tax office was correct. The rent is of course added to other income to find the tax band. Anyone out there with Uk rent who could comment? Mrs H