Grecian

Still in shock, but it would seem M. Hollande has given us a break regarding capital gains on share sales. According to the link below as from 1st January 2013 any shares that have been held for over 2 years will qualify for relief of 50%, and any shares held over 8 years will qualify for relief of 65%. This if far better than the original system he brought in where shares had to be held for 2 years starting from 1st January 2013 and would only be granted 20% relief. In addition to the 50% taper, although social charges will still be payable at 15.5%, 5.1% will be deductible against income tax. http://www.french-property.com/guides/france/finance-taxation/taxation/capital-gains-tax/shares/ [:D]

Thank you both for your replies. As I stated this morning I was still unable to access the homepage, and thus my e-mail account, I tried the link you provided Danny and still could not get in, I also tried accessing the page via Google, but alas no joy. Having just got back in, I have tried again and I am now able to access the SFR homepage, so the problem must have been at their end. Once again many thanks.

Is anybody else experiencing a problem accessing the SFR homepage? I could not load their homepage all of yesterday, and I still have the same problem this morning. We use SFR for our internet, telephone and TV all of which are working, just not able to access the homepage which seems strange. No problems accessing any other page on the internet. If somebody could be so kind as to try and access the below link and report if you are able access the page I would be most grateful. www.sfr.fr

Thanks for the reply Norman, I have now managed to turn the lights on my two posted links in another thread. It has always baffled me as to how people post active links, but no more thanks to you Norman. [:D]

Sorry not thread related, but Norman how do you make a link 'click-able' please, I posted two links on another thread and both of them wouldn't 'lite-up' so to speak, so come on spill the beans, how do you do it,[;-)]

Like you sweet 17 I have been toying with the idea of having dental implants myself, probably about the same time as you first started considering them. Having lost 5 teeth in total, one which has been replaced with bridge work, I have 3 teeth missing on the bottom left, and one missing on the bottom right. I first went to a dentist in our village, who turned out to be totally useless, he could only carry out basic fillings or else it was an extraction, I knew my teeth were starting to fall apart, but it took me too long to cotton on that the bloke didn't know what he was doing. I have since switched to a new dentist, purely by selecting one out of pages jeunes at random, who is absolutely brilliant, he can do everything up to dental implants at his surgery, and even has a x-ray machine to do full mouth x-rays, plus his surgery is totally modern. I did get a devis from him, and I think it was in the region of about €6000 just for either 2 or 3 implants on one plate, this was a while ago and at the time I thought it to be too expensive, and did not proceed and threw away the devis. There was some discrepancy with the devis as I sent it to my mutuelle who queried about €3000 of the devis which was not itemized. So if I am to proceed I will ask for another devis and challenge any extra amount added this time. I have been doing some research on the internet and came across several videos on youtube, some more gory than others. I have added a link one of the videos that shows an implant being fitted to a bottom set of false teeth. I started getting a bit squeamish when the guy doing the demonstration went from a 2mm drill bit to a 2.8mm drill bit, then when he opened the sterile drill bit supplied with the implant, [:-))], That must have left a big hole! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGkuuAUs7kk Something else to consider if the above video link has not already put you off, how good is the dentist carrying out the operation, another link from the BBC flags up the problem people have had when the dentist drilled too close to a nerve in the mouth, causing pain and numbness, so I think you need to be pretty confident in the dentist who is proposing to blast a big hole in your bone knows what he/she is doing. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18366437 Sorry, can't get the supplied links to 'lite up', so you will have to copy and paste them.* *Edit: The lights are now on my links, courtesy of Norman who kindly answered my query on another thread as to how you activate pasted web links.

Well I think you deserve your own thread parsnips, as a way of thanking you for sorting out my tax credit problem, and I am sure lots of other people would like to express their gratitude with the help you have given to them, and by putting the words tax credit in the title maybe it will help people in the future when they search the forum. Having lived in France for 5 years now I have always used an account to fill in our tax returns, as I must admit I was totally baffled with all the different boxes that had to be filled in. I had a 3-year contract with the accountant which expired this year, and I had intended to fill in our own tax returns from next year. This year I received an e-mail from our accountant telling me he was breaking the contract, and nearly doubling the fee he was proposing to charge us, so I politely told him where to go. I completed this years return copying exactly what he had done for previous years, that included not submitting a 2042C form showing my tax credit amount I had entered on the 2047 form, so subsequently we were not receiving the tax credit due to us. After confronting the 'accountant' he claimed 'most offices' take the figure from the 2047 form, ours obviously was not. Maybe I could accept this argument, but the 'accountant' also provided us with a projection of what our tax and social charges should be for each of the years he completed the returns for us, he did not take off the tax credit for any of the years returns, and so when the tax and social charge bills arrived it was corresponding with what the 'accountant' had told us to expect, so I thought we were paying the correct amounts of tax and social charges. Having read by chance the thread titled 'Form 2042CK' stated by knee gel, and then  asking you several questions parsnips I became aware that I had not submitted a 2042C form for any of the previous five years. So I took your advice and printed off the last 3 years 2042C forms, which I duly completed, and myself and my wife cobbled together a covering letter trying to explain our mistake. After about 6 weeks we received a letter telling us that indeed we were entitled to the aforementioned tax credits and we will receive a tax rebate for 2011, 2012 and 2013. [:)] Which now we have received. Taking into account the tax credit, we ended up not paying any income tax for 2011 and 2012 [:)] and massively reduced our bill for this year. So parsnips thank you very much for all your help and advice, it really is much appreciated, I really do not know how you know all the things that you do, but I am sure lots of people appreciate all you help.

Thanks for clearing that up parsnips, I must admit I did a search when I first read the thread and could only find reference to real estate, not shares so I thought that was the case. As for the tapering on share sales I guess it is better than nothing, but only just, and as you stated social charges are still taken from the full gain.

OK I am going to show my ignorance here, does the 25% abattement just apply to property sales, or does it also apply to share sales capital gains?

Thank you all for your replies. Mrs G usually uses a company in America called iherb, which are really cheap with very reasonable postage, I think it is something like $4. Unfortunately recently one of her parcels went missing, iherb use DHL as their courrier, and the parcels are delivered in France by La Poste. We then received a letter from a company called France Distribution International, claiming to have her parcel and are asking for 26 euros in TVA and charges before delivering the parcel. If any TVA is due when La Poste deliver the parcel we pay the post lady on the doorstep, usually it is not more than 11 euros. My wife sussed if you keep the order below 60 dollars then no TVA is requested by the customs, so the fact that FDI are claiming to have her parcel and asking for 26 euros makes us think this company is fraudulent, so we have refused to pay. I have found a French website where a lot of French people are complaining about FDI, and have also had their parcels intercepted. So getting back to the topic of this thread my wife is looking for an alternative for the time being, as we see what happens next with FDI, who have now sent us 3 letters asking for the 26 euros, all of which we have ignored. So she will be using H&B for the time being, although they are not as cheap as iherb.

She who must be obeyed, has asked me to ask you good folks if anybody has ordered anything from Holland and Barrett and have had the order delivered to France. It would appear they have just started shipping to Europe, it states that a courier is used for delivery. So just wondering if things have run smoothly with your order or have there been any problems?

Hello nectarine I was going to update my 'idiot's guide' thread to announce the arrival of my new driving licence, when I came across this one, so I decided to answer on this thread instead. In answer to your question my new licence arrived last week which took just short of 11 weeks to appear, obviously the August shutdown was included in the 11 weeks, so maybe things will speed up a little now. Unfortunately there is a 'but' with my new licence, I have been issued with the paper thin licence not a new EU plastic card licence, and must reapply for a plastic card licence before the end of 2014.[+o(]. Fantastic, why they could not have kept my licence application back until next week and issue me with a plastic one I do not know. Hopefully your new licence will  be the plastic card version, so maybe having to wait a little longer will be to your advantage.

Sorry to be a pain parsnips, and thank you for all your help to date, but can I run by you how I declare this pesky tax credit? I received our tax demand this morning in the post and there is definitely no "CREDITS D'IMPOT, IMPUTATIONS"-"retenue à la source ou impôt payé à l'étranger" entry on the demand, so I am not obviously getting my tax credit. This is how I think I should declare the tax credit: Form 2047 Box A: Column 1: Royaume Uni Column 2: Share dividends including all tax credits Column 3: 17.7% Column 4: Column 2 multiplied by column 3 giving tax credit total Enter the two totals in the Totaux boxes. Line A: Enter Column 2 total Line B: Enter Column 4 total Add A and B together and enter total in DC Tax credit total from Column 4 in box TA Form 2042K Box 2DC:  Enter total from Form 2047 Box DC Form 2042C Box 8TA: Enter total tax credit from Box TA from Form 2047 There easy isn't it!

Hello DD, since our mutual friend The Nationwide started charging for withdrawing our own money from ATMs here in France, I have converted stirling into euros probably twice a year. The euros are paid into our CA account, for which CA charge us €2.55 for each transfer for the privilege of letting us pay money into their bank! After reading your post I looked at the contract notes for all our transfers and they were all via Swift payment, so I am guessing that it is in fact standard practice to charge for Swift payments here in France.Sounds like CA is a bargain at €2.55! Best of luck.

Thanks for your reply parsnips. Having looked at last years avis I assume you are talking about the workings on page 2 of the avis when pointing out there should be a line reading  "CREDITS D'IMPOT, IMPUTATIONS"-"retenue à la source ou impôt payé à l'étranger". If this is the case then I certainly do not have anything printed on the avis relating to any credit. There are two lines printed on the avis relating to investment income: Revenus de capitaux mobiliers déclarés Revenus de capitaux mobiliers imposables With a figure printed next to each line, the figure for the first line being printed in the 3rd column, and the figure for the 2nd line printed in the 4th column. There is no mention of the figure that I entered on the 2047 in box TA stating my tax credit The figure in the Revenus de capitaux mobiliers déclarés line is nearly double what is printed in the Revenus de capitaux mobiliers imposables, so some deductions have been taken off, but I really cannot work out how this has been achieved. If it is the case that I have not been given my tax credits since being a French resident, then the accountant I used for the first 4 years has been getting it wrong, as I have already stated I have never handed in a 2042C form as I was not advised by the accountant to do so. For this years tax return I just put the figures in the boxes that the accountant has done for the previous 4 years, so obviously duplicating the error by not submitting a 2042C form. Its bad enough this year with Hollande raising social charges by 2% to 15.5% on investment income, and abolishing the €3050 allowance on share dividends, so I do not want to be missing out on something I am legally entitled to.

I have brought this thread back up to the top, as I think one of the replies within the thread could be relevant to this years tax bill I received. As I posted in another thread my tax demand has risen quite considerably this year, and after reading through this thread I see parsnips stated: Hi,     If you declare foreign dividends on 2047 Sec A, you need 2042C just to enter the 17.7% deduction which is given against your tax bill;  this goes in box TA on 2042C.    If they would put it on 2042K they would save a lot of trees! Well I have now submitted 5 tax returns since living in France, the first 4 I used the services of an account, and this year I completed the return myself. I have never filled out a 2042C to record the 17.7% deduction in any of the 5 years. It has always baffled me that you have to add the tax credit  and make the figure that you are declaring larger, as I thought if was meant to be a credit. Although you do enter the credit in box TA on the 2047. So parsnips or anybody else who would care to join in, can I take it that my tax credit has not been taken into consideration in the last 5 years as I have not submitted a 2042C form to claim it, if this is the case I will be having words with the accountant I have used for the last 4 years. Or do the Impôts take the tax credit figure from box TA on the 2047?

Thanks Norman for the information supplied, I see it does state on the impôts website that social charges and income tax will be lumped together. I first read about it on the link that knee gel supplied a while back. Although the tax we have already paid is not showing in the Cumul des ordres de paiements déjà donnés, having taken the total figure demanded and taking off the amount already paid, the amount left to pay matches exactly what is showing in our online account. Unfortunately after running the figures I submitted for this years tax return through the online tax simulator, it would appear that our tax bill/social charge demand is correct. We had a one off investment payment to declare this year, and with the higher exchange rate for converting stirling into euros, and monsieur Hollande changing the way that share dividends are treated, with a relatively small increase in income declared our tax bill has almost doubled. The problem being that all the extra income declared will all be taxed at the next band up. I am guessing like sue a lot of people will be unaware of the new change, and will be shocked like I was on first reading their income tax demand. Many thanks for all your replies.

Good luck nectarine. Just to update, I am still waiting for my proper licence to show up, really didn't expect too much action in August with all of the French sunning themselves at the beach.[:D]

Here we go again, I wonder if anybody can shed some light on my tax demand please. For the first year since we have lived here I filled in our tax form myself instead of using an accountant, and I am pretty sure I put the correct amounts in the right boxes. Having not received our demand for our 3rd installment of our income tax by post, I today logged onto our online  account to see if the amount to pay was showing. This is where it starts getting confusing, there are two payments showing in the Type d'impôt box, one being Taxes Fonciéres and the other Impôt sur le revenu-Prélèvements sociaux. I read a while back that the social charge payment and income tax had been lumped into one payment, and to be payable on the same day as the 3rd installment of income tax was due, which is what is showing. Unfortunately the combined amount demanded is more than double last years amount and in the box Cumul des ordres de paiements déjà donnés, the two payments I have already paid for our income tax are not showing. Has anybody else received their income tax demand through the post, or looked at your online account, and can confirm that the two payments have been lumped together, and if so is any amount of income tax that you have paid showing in the box Cumul des ordres de paiements déjà donnés. If I can ascertain that I am looking at the two payments combined that will be a start, if not then I am really confused as to why no 3rd installment of our income tax is showing. I am thinking that maybe my wife's E121 form has not been acknowledged and we have been charged social charges on our pensions.Before I go all guns blazing at the Impôts I would like to have as much information clear in my mind as I can so that I can argue our case. Hope the above makes sense, and any feedback would be most helpful.

That seems pretty conclusive sid from the link you provided, definitely says that certificates issued by one country are not valid in another country.[:(] I guess you were the lucky one receiving your licence within a few days. Wilko even by French bureaucratic standards waiting for over 6 months is somewhat stretching it, hope your certificate is still valid.

Firstly, thanks a lot for your reply sid, I found the info supplied most helpful. Well I braved the Sous-Prefecture in Bressuire this week to attempt to replace my UK licence, the lady behind the desk was very official but reasonably friendly. Expecting the worse I was pleasantly surprised how well things appear to have gone. I went armed with all the documents demanded from the Deux-Sèvres Prefecture's website, I also had a 500-year history of my family tree and the name of my first pet ready, Billy the budgie, but no she only asked for the documents from the list.[:-))] So, if anybody calls this thread up in the future, seeking the information I was looking for, and if you live in Deux-Sèvres this is what you will need: Completed and signed CERFA 11247-02 (Réf4) form. Photocopy of the picture page of your passport. Original driving licence (paper and card). No French translation needed. Photocopy of an up-to-date utility bill. 2 Passport photos Self addressed Lettre Max envelope 20 grams. Cheque for 25 euros made payable to Tresor Public. That was it, I was issued with a temporary licence dated until 2nd January 2014! She did tell me whilst smiling profusely that the new licence will take a long time to arrive, and whilst the temporary licence is valid in France, it is not valid in the UK. Not sure if this is true, if this the case I am none to happy, although I have no desire to return to the UK anytime soon, but if a family crisis were to arise I guess I could not take my car back to the UK with me. Can anyone confirm if the temporary licence is only valid in France and not the UK please.

Now why didn't I think of that idun?[+o(] Yep it's lists everything they require you to present, and by my reckoning I don't need to get my UK licence translated, only if you are from outside the EU. Can't get the link to work that they provide to print off the form, asking for a password to access the page, I will call in next week and pick up a form from the sous préfecture in Bressuire. Thank you both for your replies, it doesn't look as daunting as I first thought (famous last words!)

...Switching to a French Driving Licence please. I have searched various websites to try and glean the information I need, but I am still a bit 'wooly' on a few things. Can I exchange my UK licence at a Sous-Préfecture, or does it have to be at a main Préfecture? Regarding documentation, I guess they will want my life history, do I photocopy the documents or do they photocopy them? I am guessing that they will want: Passport Current Driving Licence (paper and card) Utility Bill(s)? Taxe Habitation or Foncier Photographs, how many? Name of my first pet Anything I have missed? I have read in an old post on this forum that some authorities are insisting that my UK driving licence has to be translated and verified in French, can anybody confirm this please. My licence expires 7th August, so how far in advance can I renew to a French licence. Will they do it there and then, or will I have to provide them with a self-addressed envelope? If so what size? I guess that will do for starters, any help with the above most gratefully received.

Well, 1.21 seems to be 'the going rate', I was going to use 1.233 as per the ECB's website showing the average exchange rate for 2012. But yesterday I called in our local tax office, and the lady at the reception desk quoted me 1.21, so that was good enough for me, changed all my workings to use the exchange rate of 1.21 instead of 1.233. If my tax office is happy with 1.21 then so am I.[:D]

Thanks a lot parsnips for clarifying all the points I raised, I guess the clue to the tax credit question was in the fact the word credit was mentioned, must concentrate harder. I won't tell the authorities if you don't, that maybe it should be 11.2% instead of 17.7%. A bit daunting this year as I mentioned this is the first year I will have completed my own tax return,. so just trying to present the forms without any errors. Once again many thanks.