cooperlola

I am all in favour of the new ruling and regs, they protect us all.  However, doing this retrospectively is fraught with dangers, not just in this particular case.  If the parties did the right thing as it was known by them all to be at the time then how can they be adjudged as being in the wrong in any way?  I can see the courts being flooded with a whole bunch of convicted criminals looking to use this loophole.  As you say Norman, absurd (and that's being polite.)

[quote user="idun"] I have no problem with copulation......... it is the subsequent conception that I have a problem with. And F said that we should put people first, above the rest of nature....... and I don't agree......... too many of us already. A subject very close to my heart. [/quote]With you all the way there.  I've done my bit. 

[quote user="Val_2"]I You do have to laugh[:)][/quote]And I might if they weren't such a scary bunch.  At least one person in your commune has a long enough memory, Val.

I think we have come to pretty much the same conclusion, Norman.  I'll explain.  The ACO offers discounted ticket entry for those with 80% disability.  Given that a third of the audience (and we're talking 200k people here), and two thirds of those who camp, are British or other Europeans, there seems to be no facility for them to benefit which ain't good.   I would like to take this up with them and ask on behalf of some friends of mine who prepare a guide each year (I write the "disabled" bit) but thought I'd get some official info' - should it exist - first.

The trouble is that it's difficult to say anything on this subject without sounding horribly negative.  However, imho, apart from the cost of property (buying it, not maintaining or renovating it), imho NOTHING else over here is cheaper than the UK with the limited possible exception of wine.  But you cannot live on that.  Well, not for long, anyway. I know a few British people with good jobs here but all got them before they moved, none came here on spec' and competed successfully against a French person for a job once here.  I have an English neighbour who works as an English teacher but she lives very frugally and works very hard.  Others run holiday businesses but they have a regular pension income on top.  I also have a couple of farmer friends but they farmed before they came here and their parents helped them to buy initially.  Plus it's a really big business with a lot of beef cattle and they work 14 hour days 365 days a year. It can be done but don't expect it to be a picnic.  At least you don't have any kids yet so if you take the plunge, only you two will be hurt if it goes wrong and you are still young enough to bounce back.  Proceed with caution, at the very least and as Val suggests, try renting first. And be sure you have your healthcare covered, as Norman says.

It's pretty clear, anyway, Norman, that people on small incomes aren't affected as one is exempt if one pays no income tax, afaics, and pays less if it is very low.  Thus people like Kenny who are on AME don't pay anyway.  Thus I can't imagine your UK pension would attract a lot of this by the sound of it.  But then, as I say, I am really cr*p at this.  No matter how many times I read financial documents I still don't understand them.  Figures do my head in. Your comment about retrospective claims is reassuring, I must say.  However, as I mentioned, it was Clair's exprience with her gite earnings this year which made me nervous.  If she has trouble with these collection agencies, what hope have I?

It was Sunday's original post that made me prick up my ears: "Up until now, CRDS was collected by the tax office through income tax declarations, leaving CSG to be collected by URSSAF. However, there was no referral mechanism in place for the tax office to notify URSSAF that CSG was due (and no-one ever voluntarily contacted URSSAF and offered to pay their CSG) so this long standing loophole remained - until now. " My italics. As this was their error then I guess we can't be liable in retrospect but knowing the way the systems can work here one can never be 100% sure. (EDIT :No, I haven't got something odd in my ear.  The word is pr  ick)

Can anybody tell me how the percentage ratings of disabilities are translated across Europe?  Specifically, an organisation here offers discounted tickets for those with over 80% disability.  How does this work for those who are registered disabled in the UK?  How do they prove they're 80%?  Is it a common system or what?

Taking the specific case of France out of the equation though, I still am never quite sure what's wrong with the theory (apart from Andy's point.)  It has always seemed to me to be bonkers to pay young people dole money so that old f*rts can stay in their jobs for a bit longer.  Somebody has to be supported by the state if there are not enough jobs to go around so why make people work for longer when they're older? Why not give the opportunities to the young who have more energy and who, it seems to me anyway, need to start work pretty quickly if they are not to be marginalised for a lifetime? But somehow when working weeks are made shorter and retirement ages lowered it doesn't seem to help.  France appears, at least on the face of it, to have a shorter working week and a shorter working life than many other countries in Europe and yet its unemployment figures are very poor.  Why is that? I do agree, Idun, there are certainly some professions where even 60 is old as an age to retire.  I think many of my ancestors who, on my father's side, were miners and farm labourers, would have been delighted if they'd lived to be 60, let alone had the chance to give up work.

[quote user="NormanH"]This is only a change in the way these charges are collected surely, not an extra charge? Or have I missed something? In addition it only affects the few under retirement age who have chosen not to work or run a business and pay their charges that way as Lou says. [/quote]I don't think you have missed anything but Lou and I had!  It seems that we (the early retired) should have been paying 6.6% of our total income to URSSAF (or is it SAAF? - I forget!) since our arrival, as well as the 0.5% collected automatically each year by the tax man.  However, I, Lou, Anonia and maybe others who either haven't read this thread or just aren't much affected, have never been charged this amount as UR-doo-dah have never collected it nor asked for it, even though we have all (afaik) filled in all the correct bits of paper. My suspicion is that as you've worked here you've always done this anyway and thus it's something you paid and were charged for automatically.  For me at least, I never realised I had to pay anything but the 0.5 on my pension and the other charges on unearned income (not that I have any of that  - ie savings interest etc - since that's all 0 on UK current accounts nowadays.)  Plus of course income tax and cotis to CMU.  I am aware that ignorance of the rules is no excuse but it's interesting that I've never noticed this subject before on this forum.  I'm happy to admit that it's my mistake but I am truly dreading the fact that now the tax man is collecting it that somebody will join the dots and demand this for the last seven years we've been here.  And that is money we just do not have. But I'm sure Norman, that it will not affect you as you are more on top of these things than I who am a financial numbskull in any language.

So the retirement age is to be dropped to 60 here (at least he seems to be keeping his promises thus far.)  Can somebody please explain to me why the theory that fewer older people in the job market will help the employment situation for the young doesn't seem to work in practice?  Is that just my  perception or does it actually work but I don't know it?  If it's a flawed theory, can somebody please explain in simple terms (without the "young people prefer to be on the dole" cliches, svp.) why this is so.

[quote user="sid"] I've filed online for 6 years but still get the paper version by post, .   [/quote]Yes, but don't you get a page coming up each year when you file on line, asking if they can stop sending you the paper version?  I do but I ignore it, hence  - or so I thought - I still get it.

[quote user="Lou"] Maybe most people don't/won't pay because they've got S1s, or are working and paying anyway? Lou [/quote]I think this must be it. When I was first on here there were a lot of "pre-retireds" about but I guess the healthcare scare and then the exchange rate have got rid of a lot of those.  Now that I know I'll put more money in the Livret A each month from now on but it's the surprise which got me.  It's going to make life hard but at least I can budget for 2013.  This one was a big shock and has eaten a goodly chunk of the meagre compensation I got.  I don't know where we'd have found the money otherwise. I really hope they can't do this retrospectively too Lou, but after the problems Clair had this year with her AE, nothing would suprise me.  It would finish us too in that we'd need a loan to pay it and that was the last thing we wanted when we moved here.  We had hoped at least to be debt free from now on.

[quote user="Edward Trunk"]Then of course, there's an organisation called "HMRC" which takes money off you for "good purposes" - schools, hospitals........[/quote]Quite.  I have a fundamental distrust of the whole concept of charities.  If taxation worked properly then we'd all be supporting those less fortunate than ourselves without any need for this stuff, nor the sharks who feed off it. Grr. Don't get me started.[:-))]

[quote user="dave21478"]I now have a hot-flush toilet.[I] [/quote]Adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "a steaming pile of....."[+o(]

I certainly couldn't live here on my own pension, Chessfou.  If the  o/h pops it, I'm off.  Not what I have ever wanted but there you go. I'd be sad to leave but as I have cancer I cannot now opt out and go private as they wouldn't take me.  Happily the o/h would be fine as he is nearly 65 anyway but if I were on my own I'd be stuffed in more ways than one.  Ah well, such is life.  It's nice while it lasts.

[:D] The fact that I can never find anything which I have held on to (and that amounts to tons of paper over the years) is the reason I have never turned down the paper copy.  I just don't trust myself enough.

I did find the box and filled it in.  However, when the calculation of the tax bill came up at the end, there was no CSG amount in the payment estimate, in spite of the fact that our pensions total was shown as having been put in box 8TV. Did the total CSG amount due come up for you, Chessfou? Our CRDS one did but not that.  On the short blue paper form I got in the post there's no 8TL either which would have alerted everybody else who's affected to the change, I guess.  Hence the quietness on this thread.  Luckily (huh!) I was granted the princely sum of 11k euros in compensation for my accident so I can pay this no problem this year but it will be a significant additional monthtly outgoing in the future - luckily just for a couple more years until Mr C gets his OAP.  Here's hoping we won't get done for back payments or I'll have to send him out on the streets.  Discovering that we get 6.6% less a month than we thought has been a real blow, I can tell you, I haven't slept properly since I first saw this. I still am amazed it has raised such a muted response.

[:)] Well, having satisfied myself (thanks so much SD for pointing this out 'cos I'd just have done as I do every year - although I'd have smelt a rat I guess once I noticed that my usual box was missing from the short form) that I had identified the correct procedure, I declared on line this afternoon.  Interestingly, the dreaded 6.6% doesn't come up in the calculations at the end but I guess the system has yet to catch up as it's there in the summary. We shall see.  Just hoping it has to be paid with the social charges bill and not the tax one to give us a month or two more to catch up. It will be interesting if this all gets absorbed into the income tax bill as it more than doubles mine.

We had the same response as Norman when we first came over and paid tax in both countries for a while before getting the UK refund - a big "non" to signing the form until we'd actually paid our first tax bill in France.  In this case we'd hope that as we're already paying here it won't be such a bore but you just never know with officialdom.

My nieces and nephews have made the tranfer back to the UK education system with no probs re their French bac/brevet etc (sorry, I'm not into kids so don't keep track much but O and A equivs) and have got into 6th form/Cambridge back in the UK without any doubt over the validity of French bits of paper!  Hope that helps a bit even if it doesn't directly answer your question.

As Mr C is due to get his OAP in 2014 I am given to wonder whether I should be getting another FI form ready in advance!  Presumably it will come to us net in the first instance? 

Does this help? http://www.cesu.urssaf.fr/cesweb/taux.jsp

Yes, Norman, the other bit is already in my handbag - along with the million other bits of cr*p I cart around with me!  I was just humming and hah-ing about the vignette.

I got my insurance sorted (began with my house insurers but they didn't cover scooters) and was very suprised when yesterday a little green vignette (just like the one I get for my car) turned up in the post yesterday!   I still can't decide whether I need to display it all the time or not - it strikes me as very easy to nick.  What do motor bike owners do? Do you just assume that nobody would want such a thing as it's unique to your bike and wouldn't mean much in the event of a claim, anyway?