bouliste

Having just returned from hospital after an op i am running late with my Impot Declaration! I am trying to declare the sale of two small (moneywise) batches of UK shares owned for a number of years (qualifying for 50% & 65% reductions respectively) So - 2042C box 3SG for the amount of reduction and 2042 box 3VG fot the gains minus the reduction. Then i get directed to form 2074 at which point i am completely lost! It won't let me continue until completed. Can anyone help me as to what i am supposed to enter and where- or if i have to use any of the other 2074 options? Many thanks.

  Many thanks for your reply - that would be most helpful if you could tell me which form/box I have to fill in. My mother-in-law is French and has been in a retirement home for nearly 7 years now and does benefit from the APA payments . Unfortunately she suffers from Alzheimer's and requires more expensive care and with my wife being an only child the onus falls upon us. Now that her savings have been exhausted last year was the first time we had to contribute , so any help from the tax authorities from now on will be most welcome! I am sure someone else will be able to help me with the double glazing query.   Alan H. 

Can anyone help me with this please.  1. Can I claim a tax reduction for the installation of double glazing windows in a apartment. 2. Can I also claim for the payment of fees for a elderly dependant (mother-in-law) living in a retirement/nursing home. (This is to make up the shortfall between her pension and the monthly residential fee) . If so, which form do I use and in which box do I enter the figures? Do I need to send any justification with my tax return? I have tried to work out what goes where without success - just ending up with a spinning head! I would be most grateful for any help with this.      

Many thanks to all who responded to my post. I just need clarification on the issue of replacing my current box with a new one and contacting Sky to upgrade my card. Can I not contact them via my mobile rather than the land line phone, or will they detect this as a overseas call as well? If that is the case can I not just get my UK friend whose address I use, to phone them with details of the new box to enable the upgrade by Sky or will they require some action to be taken at the time of the call. The original Pace digibox I had when I first used Sky I bought privately to avoid having to be connected via the phone for the first 12 months ( to enable me to take it to France for our extended hols), so I am not sure what sort of contract i have with Sky. When this box started giving problems in 2004 I had it replaced with my present Pace box - so i guess it has given me good service! This is always assuming that the problem is the box (which still gets me Sky for a short time when I switch it off/on) Don't know if there are any checks I can run to verify this or to highlight any other cause.. 

Help! After many trouble free years my Sky system has started to play up. The picture just disappears and I am left with a blamk screen - no message and my Sky receiver (PACE DS430N ) remains switched on with the green light showing. I have tried switching off my digibox for a few minutes and replacing the sky card and this gets me Sky back again - for about 10 -15 mins and then the same thing happens again. I tried leaving the box switched off for a few hours and after switching back on managed to get Sky back for about 40 min! Assuming it is a fault with the Pace box what options do I have bearing in mind that I have the full sky package (my wife insists on this!) and my Sky account is held with the help of a friends UK address and my subscription paid by standing order through my UK bank account. Any advice on how to overcome this problem would be greatly appreciated. Many thanks 

Can anyone please clarify the position regarding the declaration (or not!) of pension lump sums received during the 2011 tax year. My understanding ( according to the tax guide provided by 'The Connection' english paper) is that it is NOT neccessary to declare these sums as the French authorities have yet again delayed producing th  document to clarify whether or not these sums should be declared for taxation in France.  Do we still have to inform the tax authorites that we have received a lump sum pension payment (and can someone tell me what the french is for 'lump sum' please!) even though we are not entering it on the tax forms? A couple of months ago the Connection suggested attaching a letter to the tax form to say that a lump sum had been received but was not being declared as it is protected under the UK-France double tax treaty. However in their April guide for the tax declaration they say there is no need to declare this sum as it comes under British pension law and is tax free in France if paid into a UK bank account. Confusing! I would prefer if possible not to have to inform my local tax office about my lump sum payment - I had a 2 year running battle with them over my wife's teachers pension because they insisted she had to pay tax in France as well as the UK - I dread to think what they will make of this situation! Any advice on this subject would be most helpful.         

Having now qualified for my  E121 form last year I notice that the Connexion guide (item B) tells you to complete page 4 section V111 on the 2047 form if you have an old age pension and the E121 and then copy the figure over to form 2042 page 4 section 8 box TL. (To avoid CRDS charges) (I was told in the past NEVER to fill in box TL (2042) if I had an E121 or I WOULD incur CRDS charges!)  If  this is the case, as my wife also holds an E121 form can I  assume that it is our total income figure that we  fill in these boxes & not just your our state pension figures? One other query.  My wife has a  teachers pension which is therefore taxed in the UK. As she is a French national  the authorities insist that she must be taxed here as well (after long discussions with the authorities on both sides of  the channel it was agreed that she could claim back a credit for the UK tax paid  to be offset against her French tax charge - it is all a question of interpretation of the relevant sections of the Double Taxation Treaty  - dont ever go there , we have had 2 nightmare years paying double tax trying to sort it out!) Am I right in thinking that the income from her teachers pension should therefore go into box TK page 4 section 8 form 2042 in order to gain this tax credit ? Can anyone advise please. Thanks.

I receive my pension in France from my UK Drawdown Pension, which is looked after by an  Independant Financial Advisor group in the UK. Unfortunately their handling of  my account has left a lot to be desired and I now have the problem of  moving my pension to a new advisor. As it is not practical for me to find another UK based advisor I was wondering if any members have had dealings with  either Siddalls or Blevins Franks as they seem to be the two major players in this field in France. Maybe there are other options open to me, if so i would be grateful for any advice. One area of concern for me would be the level of regulation a company would be subject to.

Martin, Many thanks for your input - even if most of it is beyond my poor technical comprehension! I have checkedthe back of my Sky Digibox - nothing connected to the three sockets marked  aerial in / rf out 1 / rf out 2 . The scart lead connects to the SEDEA box from the socket at the rear of the digibox marked TV Scart. Apart from the satellite cable which conects to the socket marked Dish Input the only other connection is the mains power lead.   It seems from what you and other contributors have said,  that I need a complete review of my current set-up by someone experienced in these matters! ( I dare not tamper with the set up as my wife is threating divorce if I lose the Sky system!!) I live in Le Lavandou in the Var Department so if anyone knows of a experienced installer in my area I would be grateful if they could let me know. I notice that adverts appear in various english language publications like the Connexion for Sky installations - one company currently advertising being  ORBIT HOME TECHNOLOGIES - if anyone has had deaings with them perhaps they could email me. If I have to upgrade my Sky Digibox in order to overcome my problems/be able to view in HD where do I stand as far as my sky card is concerned (Just switched to the new replacement card  that Sky sent out to me - via a UK address - last week). As I will be away for the next couple of weeks after this weekend can I once again thank all those people who have tried to help me. I shall certinly keep all this information to hand if only I can manage to find someone to come and help me out!

[quote user="bouliste"] Many thanks for all the replies. I need to check out all the details of my Sky set-up and do another posting as it is not quite straightforward! I live in a flat on the 4th floor of a 7 floor buiilding with my satellite dish on the roof and my digibox (sited in the hallway) connected to 2 tv's(on different floors) via a infra-red system. Will supply more details tomorrow. One item which may be crucial is that the scart lead connects to the AV1 socket of my Sony tv from my magnetscope. [/quote]H Here goes for my Sky set-up (as far as I can make out, not being technically gifted as you will have gathered!) My satellite dish (7th floor roof) is connected to a PACE SKY DIGIBOX DS5430N which sits on a shelf of  the ground floor of my flat (4th floor). A scart lead connects from the lower socket (marked TV Scart) to a infra red system box (SEDEA Reception) . Two cables feed from this - one to a Recepteur IR box next to the TV in the bedroom on the 1st Floor and one to the Recepteur IR next to the Sony Bravia TV in the Living Room on the 2nd floor. A cable connects from  both these boxes to the two video recorders ( one for each TV) via the aerial socket at the rear. A Scart lead connects to the Sony TV ( AV1 socket) from the video recorder (AV1 EXT1 socket). Same type of connection for the bedroom TV. All my Sky remote handset commands are operated by pointing at the infra -red box next to the TV's. Via the DIGITAL button on my Sony handset I can access 18 Digital French channels Via the ANALOGUE button I can access French channels 1-6 (except Channel  4 as I dont subscribe to Canal+)  -  Also SKY which has been set up by the installer on Channel 8. In response to the question about viewing order of channels - I do access the channels in the correct order on Sky - (BBC1/2 on 101/2 - ITV on 103  - Ch4 on 104 etc)  The bedroom set only has the basic analogue French channels as well as Sky  - its only a standard portable (several yrs old). It seems to me that the only Scart cable I can play around with is the one from the back of my video recorder connecting to the Sony tv . As I mentioned before,  until now this system has served me well - its only switching to this new Sony Bravia set that I see a marked difference in the quality of picture having to view Sky in Analogue ( I had always assumed I was watching Sky Digital in Digital mode on my previous set when it was set on Channel 0!). The more I read this the more complicated it seems! I suppose the basic question is - Can I watch Sky in digital format on my set - if yes, why did they not set the Sky channel on digital for me -or maybe they could not be bothered doing all the rejigging! Thanks again for all the responses. .  

Many thanks for all the replies. I need to check out all the details of my Sky set-up and do another posting as it is not quite straightforward! I live in a flat on the 4th floor of a 7 floor buiilding with my satellite dish on the roof and my digibox (sited in the hallway) connected to 2 tv's(on different floors) via a infra-red system. Will supply more details tomorrow. One item which may be crucial is that the scart lead connects to the AV1 socket of my Sony tv from my magnetscope.

Hi Clair, Thanks for your reply. I am pretty sure that I am already pointing at the Astra 2d cluster - is there anyway I can verify this on my set or via my digibox? I receive the full range of Sky channels OK - just not in digital mode.

My first posting and apologies if this subject has already been covered. I have recently had a SONY BRAVIA KDL-40W4000 television installed and am rather confused as to why I have to receive my SKY programmes via the ANALOGUE button on my telecommand (resulting in a rather grainy picture), although all my French channels are received via the DIGITAL button? The man installing the set said that I could only receive the SKY programmes in ANALOGUE mode? Can this be true- or is there a way to receive them in digital mode? Does that also mean that I will not be able to watch SKY in HD in future? As you will gather I am no technician as far as the new genaration of  televisions are concerned - any advice would be most helpful!