SC
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Posts posted by SC
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An article by Bill Blevins in French News recently stated that French residents would not pay tax on an inheritance from the UK. I sent the editor a message with a link to the French government web page mentioned earlier in the post. The reply was follows:
The page quoted from the www.impots.gouv.fr website makes no mention of the impact of double tax agreements (DTAs - conventions internationales ). DTAs override domestic legislation. There is some conflict between the UK and French inheritance tax systems, because the UK taxes the estate of the deceased whereas France taxes the beneficiary. However, Clause 5(2) of the inheritance taxes convention of 1963 between the UK and France makes it very clear that:
“Where a person was at the time of his death domiciled in some part of Great Britain duty shall not be imposed in France on any property not situated in France, and in determining the amount or rate of duty payable on a property which is chargeable in France, any property not situated in France shall be disregarded”.The agreement also extends to Northern Ireland. 'Property' means assets. 'Domicile' has different meanings in the UK and France and where there is any doubt about the deceased's domicile for the purposes of the DTA, it is defined along normal tax residence lines. So, in practical terms where a deceased individual died tax resident in the UK, there can be no French inheritance tax (succession tax) except on French-situated assets (which would normally just be French real estate and shares in French-incorporated companies that the deceased had owned).Steve -
You may find that if you make a complaint at the Gendarmerie your insurance company will will pay and you may not lose your bonus. Ask them. That is what happened to us (with GAN). Your excess is a different matter, we didn't have one. Good luck.
Steve
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Ron:
"What post election violence?"
France24 five minutes ago: 700 cars burned, 600 arrested (last night)
Steve
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"Most French folks lie through their teeth on 'le Declaration Preremplie'"[:)]
I think that I remember reading that the impots receipts took a surprising jump last year. Looking at our commune's returns (14608 average overall, but only 20488 for imposibles), it makes one wonder where the money comes from to buy the new cars, including the fair smattering of Passats, 806's, etc. I can draw conclusions, but what does n.d. stand for?
I believe that household members can opt to be taxed separately? If so, and if it is common, the figures would be much more difficult to interpret.
Steve
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Am I the only one who takes the view that when Segolene Royale predicted violence if Sarkozy was elected, it was bound to happen? Was she naive or acting intentially? Let's hope that it dies out tonight.
What do you think?
Steve -
Glib is a bit rude Clair, you may vote, but we all live here.
Steve
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[quote user="Tresco"][quote user="Sc"]...as I said before, we see and hear what we want to.[/quote]
'I respect what she has done to get here...' it sounded patronising to me.
[/quote]
Yes, I heard that too. He certainly said more than in the quote that I found.
Has anyone found a French or English transcript? The audio can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9966285 but I'm not sure that I want to hear it all again and without ADSL it will take me four hours to download.
Of course, he may really 'respect what she has done to get there...' because he knows what he has had to do himself...you'll have to imagine the appropriate emoticon.
Steve
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[quote user="Tresco"]
I thought he was incredibly patronising towards her at that point and she was right not to respond. He did the same in his speech after the first round (which she also studiously ignored).
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Asked at the end to comment on each other, Sarkozy said, "I have much respect for her. We have a lot of differences, but I hope here we have given an image of a renewed democracy, at ease with itself. I hold no personal animosity."
Royal said she would "refrain from personal remarks"Seemed OK to me, maybe I didn't pick up his tone. Considering the personal slights of the past few weeks, I thought it a politic comment, but as I said before, we see and hear what we want to.
Steve
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I found it difficult to keep up with, especially when they were both talking at the same time.
Segolene Royal came across better than I expected too, and I thought made better use of the early part of the discussion. Of course her economic message is simpler to put across, 'no cuts to numbers of functionaires', 'government creation of half a million jobs' etc is pretty straightforward (la grande braderie!), but I'm not sure that it will sway many of those who didn't vote left in the first round, who may be sceptical at the cost and past performance.
I agree that her voice was, or became monotonous, and wonder if she didn't give viewers the impression that she was haranging him. Although overall they spoke for virtually the same time, I was left with the impression that she had spoken for much longer than he.
Sarkozy's message of 'trickle down' economics is less concrete of course, and saying that he will severely reduce the number of government employees is an instant bitter pill. Many, many families have a functionaire within them in the same way that they have family connections to farmers. I also wonder if citing the experience of Spain and in particular the UK was a good move given French perceptions of Britain. I didn't catch him defending 'his' government's apparent success in reducing unemployment, considering he was taking flak for the past five years.
I've been uneasy as to who would be making policy if Royal was elected and for me she went some way to show her authority and mastery of her subject (a la Thatcher?). I think that Sarkozy was more statesmanlike, particularly at the end when asked to comment on Madame Royale. Although he may have been lying through his teeth, I thought her 'no comment' on her opponent said it anyway and to my mind came over as sour grapes.
Incidentally did anyone notice the shots of Patrick P d'Arvor when he appeared to be looking sceptically at SR, and later listening intensely to NS?
Regardless of our own political leanings and the above comments (we all see what we want to see after all), we thought that SR's performance may have been good enough to get her elected on Sunday.
Steve
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An only child long-term resident in France inheriting more than 100,000€ pays rights of succession, at over 115,000€ the rate is 20%. This is as good as it gets, the more children or the more distant the beneficiary the lower the level per beneficiary that taxes kick in. The levels and rates are shown here:
http://www.bnpparibas.net/banque/portail/particulier/Fiche?type=fiche&identifiant=Calculer_ses_droits_de_succession_20021010135112
My smiley meant that yes, I think that it's a good idea to abolish succession taxes on single children who inherit say an average house in the UK or indeed France, and that might include me [:)] and others who are reading this. Sorry if it wasn't clear that I was just smiling.
I don't take the conclusions on the anti-Sarkozy website too seriously any more than I do Sarkozy's promises, however I can but hope.
I do think that its bit rich for the French to tax a French resident on inheriting UK estate, and a UK resident on inheriting French estate.
Taxing the rich doesn't affect me because I'm not in that group, and if I was I'd probably move elsewhere, as they do.
Steve
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I don't think that anyone's mentioned that Nicolas Sarkozy has said that he wants to abolish succession taxes. Of course, he's said a lot of things, but this seems eminently sensible to me[:)].
Article here on an anti Sarkozy website: http://vandepj0.free.fr/spip.php?article24
Steve
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[quote user="Panda "]
We do know we don't want the secondary system where we came from in the UK where almost all kids go to Uni (or some updated poly) then leave with a degree in an obscure discipline and find that there are no jobs that will make use of the degree, they are 24k in debt and working in telesales. I have 2 nephews in this situation and they are very miserable.
Panda
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I'm sorry to hear about your nephews' situation, Panda, but the system gave them what they asked for, the qualifications in the subjects they chose.
Our experience with the UK system was far less bleak than you describe.
Our son went through the sytem there and graduated from what you describe as an 'updated poly'. He, and many of his course-mates were offered job contracts at the end of their placement years, and at 26 he has a job that is extremely well paid.
He doesn't consider himself a high flier, but he did what he did, and does what he does, by hard work and a wish to succeed, much as is driving our daughter's education here in France. He worked hard during his holidays and placement year, he took the maximum loan, which was roughly £12K when he graduated, and has had no difficulty paying back, and he still managed to be out of his head most evenings.
We are as proud of his achievements and his British education as we are of our daughter's here in France. They are different systems, and I would defend anyone who succeeds in either. I do think that the same youngsters who succeed in one system would quite likely succeed in the other - and it's not necessarily an intelligence thing. I'm also fairly sure that if a student can't succeed in the British system (after primary), he or she is very unlikely to succeed in the French one.
At our son's award ceremony, the Vice Chancellor told the graduates "not to pay heed to those ignorant people who dismiss their degrees", sentiments that I strongly agree with.
I wish your nephews every success in finding a job that interests them. I'm sure that they're not the only graduates in that situation, and whilst things usually come right in the end, its better to be working in a telephone sales centre than on the dole (in my opinion of course).
Steve
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Just for information, the Prime Minister signed the authorisation for construction last Wednesday.
Steve
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I'm not sure how old your daughter is Vicki, but our daughter had two terms in Catholic primary, moved on to Catholic college, and takes her Economic/Social Bac next year. It has been a struggle for her all the way, the breadth of a French academic education seems to be far greater than a UK one, but we have always had the impression that most of her teachers cared about how she was doing, and some extra help with French was given in primary and college when required. We didn't choose the Catholic system but it seemed to choose us, both the estate agent and our peasant farmer neighbour making a pitch for it, and then a meeting with a very positive head. Our daughter even attended her school here before we moved permanently. Where we live there is no selection of intake at primary or college, and being in the system she was then guaranteed a place at the most successful academic lycee in the area. Do ask around about the Catholic colleges and lycees where you live, you might find that visiting both state and private establishments helps you make up your mind.
The advantages of the Catholic system for us have been: smaller schools, no teacher's strikes, teachers proud of their school's reputation, a good social mix of positive and supportive parents, 100% pass rate at the brevet against the state college's 68%, good motivation from the director and teachers at her Lycee (85% pass rate of those who sit at Bac S,L, and ES).
The downside for our daughter, compared to our son who went through the UK system in what we thought were very good state schools, is that her French education has been no fun. Very long hours at lycee, loads of homework, rigidity of responses to questions (even English!), availability of non work-orientated courses etc. But we're hoping that a UK university course will make up for that later!.
I was very sceptical of the French system for the first few years, but when you see your child battling with and overcoming the obstacles by sheer hard work, then you become very proud of their achievement and proud also of the education they have been given.
It sounds to me that you have been as impressed by this head teacher as we were our daughter's, and I hope that if you take the Catholic education path you will be as pleased with it as we have been.
Steve
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Thanks for the link, I'm interested in this too.
Vérifiez si le patrimoine du défunt est soumis ou exonéré de droits de succession.
Check if the estate of the deceased is subject to or exonerated from (French) succession tax.
Si le défunt n’avait pas son domicile fiscal en France et pour les décès intervenus à compter du 1er janvier 1999, l’imposition dépend du domicile de celui qui reçoit les biens:
- le bénéficiaire est domicilié fiscalement en France au jour du décès et l’a été depuis au moins six ans dans les dix années précédant la date du décès, tous les biens meubles et immeubles français et étrangers reçus sont imposables en France
- le bénéficiaire est domicilié hors de France, seuls les biens situés en France sont imposables.
Briefly it says that if the deceased isn't tax resident in France, the imposition of taxes depends on the residency of the beneficiary.
If the beneficiary is tax resident in France at the moment of the death and has been for at least six of the previous ten years, then all French and foreign goods and property received will be taxed in France.
If the beneficiary is tax resident outside France, succession tax only applies to the French part of the estate.
I can't see anything in the rest of the document that suggests a normal UK estate would be excluded.
I think that's the gist of it, not word for word. It's bad news for a lot of (us) folks though. Transmission from parent to child benefits from a 50K allowance (and possibly a share of another global 50K allowance) after that taxes apply. A UK IHT free 300K GBP or 441K€ estate inherited by a French tax resident from their parent would attract roughly 76,500€ succession tax if my calculations are correct - any constructive comments gratefully received. Likewise recommendations for a good accountant, notaire.
Steve
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Yes, as Panda says, there's no problem in having a micro enterprise + employment. We have taken up short term employment contracts in the UK whilst having a micro-enterprise here and declared the income in France. If the employment is legitimate and within France then the remuneration will (should) be already printed on your friend's French tax return when she receives it.
Steve
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'I did this for a few weeks, as I was never offered any contribution to the cost of transport' so you stopped
How much extra did it cost you to transport their youngster? How many Euros per week do you think that your neighbours should have paid you?
Steve
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The Separation de Biens regime, which a UK marriage is considered to be in France, would protect the survivor from most of the debts of the deceased though, wouldn't it?
I read that under the tontine, there will be droits de mutation to pay (7-8%, but of what?) at the transfer of the property if it is valued over roughly £50K, which could be a considerable bill if one is unprepared.
Steve -
Wouldn't the marriage regime determine whether the suvivor is responsible for the other's debt? (After the property is transferred)
Steve
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The driving school taught our daughter that the she should stop if the pedestrian has started to cross. 'Engaged' the crossing was the literal translation.
So, just jump off the pavement in front of oncoming traffic, its your right of way[:D]
Steve
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A reflective paint for white lines incorporating crushed oyster shells has recently successfully passed traffic wear tests here. We may soon see it in use.
Steve
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"Sc, Can't find the 10Euro offer on Virgin.fr, do they have a name for the offer?"
Sorry for the slow reply, I don't look in that often.
The Virgin address you want is http://www.virginmobile.fr/lv_cartes_prepayes.php
"La carte SIM
La carte sim seule est disponible à 15€ seulement et les recharges 10, 20, 30, 40€ ont toutes la même durée de validité : 3 mois en émission (1 mois pour l’offre 30J) et 6 mois de plus en réception. "Steve
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Virgin 10€ card lasts three months, unexpired credit is not lost when new card is activated. Network is Orange, calls are cheaper than Carrefour. Hardly worth changing though for such a small advantage.
Steve
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Here's the blurb from the beeb:
'Monday 20:00 Document
The Marriage Cordiale
The extraordinary tale of the 1956 French offer to turn Britain and France into one country. Previously secret documents reveal that the French Prime Minister, Guy Mollet, made the offer to Anthony Eden who discussed it with his Cabinet.
Mollet even suggested Elizabeth II could be head of the French state. What motivated Mollet's offer and how close did his plan come to being realised?
Mike Thomson investigates a time when the fate of France, the shape of Europe, and the balance of global power hung in the balance.'Stranger than fiction, promises to be fascinating!
Steve
EdF and GdF to lose their supply monopoly for private customers
in French Finance
Posted
[quote user="Clair"]
Two types of alternative suppliers are likely to emerge: those who can produce energy and those who can by it in bulk to resell.
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Surely under de-regulation producers can't sell direct to consumers?
If so we'll see the same uncompetitive practices/cartels as in the mobile phone market.
Steve