Wynne Skreenwipa

Sunday driver/Cooperlola I have returned from visiting my brother and sister-in-law in UK, and have a scheme in hand to help me with my current difficulties in managing my finances pro-tem. I wonder if you can give some info regarding income and capital gains rules here in France? My brother and sister-in-law are financially readily able to 'loan' or 'gift' me about £5000 p.a. to help me remain in France. They are my only relatives and are sole beneficiaries of my will. They like to holiday in France and my only asset (my property) is quite capable of allowing them extensive use, without impacting on our 'mutually privacy'. This 'family deal' therefore provides me with some money and them with a current and future interest in France. Notwithstanding all the possible pitfalls with family deals cf. legal agreements, the info I am seeking is :- what tax revenue implications will the 'loan' or 'gift' of this money have? Do I have to make any declarations to the DGI or should I make some pre-agreements to avoid having to declare it? Many thanks in advance Wynne  

[quote user="cooperlola"] .............However, Wynne, you may indeed be in a dodgy position for two reasons : 1.  You should have had state health cover up until now because you were legally bound to and b) you should have been filling in a tax return here.  Therefore, the authorities might well say that you do not have five years' legal residence as you appear - at least on the surface - to have been breaking two laws here.  I don't know if your husband's accountant is English or French but he may have been giving your husband poor advice.  If he's French, then you should have a good case to make against him if (as it appears from the little I can glean from your post) he has been advising you incorrectly......... [/quote] Coops, Thank you for your reply and the info. contained in it. I have, belatedly, submitted a revenue tax declaration, in my own name, for FY2006. I have some documentation from the notaire and our french bank relating to the settlement of my husbands estate in 2005, which include a declaration, I had to sign, that I had no revenue for that year. I have not, however, submitted a 'declaration of revenu' for FY2005, can I ask if you think its too late to correct that? As for the health cover, I was sent a E121 after my husbamd died, which was for the period when I was entitled to bereavement allowance, but that has expired, and I never did anything with it, anyway!(What an ostrich I was). I have to sort out my health care cover, I don't suppose I will be able to 'retrospectively' get into the CMU, (even though I have proof of residence for 5 years etc) therefore must buy PHI and see if there's some way I can earn an income to pay for it! (but, perhaps, as I'm apparently an illegal resident, that won't be possible? Oh dear!)' Anyway, a big thank you for the comments you made, unique to my situation. The various websites contain a lot of advice, but it takes a lot of sorting through to get info relevant to my case. Your remarks will help me focus on the areas to tackle. I may email FHI as well. Regards, Wynne.  

Britgirl, Like yourself, I am fairly recently widowed. I am a pre-retirement, inactif living off savings, and very worried about my healthcare, and in  fact residency, status. While my husband was alive we had BUPA world-wide health cover from his self-owned company and never affiliated to the CMU. I lived in France full time since 2002; he did also, but worked all over the EU, spending only short times in France. His accountant sorted out all the tax details. I have 'buried my head in the sand' for some time about health issues by 'paying my way' for medical consultations and medication, but last year, ( nearly two years after his death) I tried to sort things out with DWP and CPAM. All my UK benefit entitlements have finished and I have no 'E' forms and no health cover insurance. On my last visit to the CPAM office (09/01/2008) I was told that as I "..had no resources in France I could not affiliate to  CMU...". I corrected the official by saying that I had " resources in France, but no taxable revenue." She checked with her superior, but did not change her 'advice'. I told her that as a resident of five years I should be able to affiliate: I got the Gallic shrug and that was that! The purpose of this reply  s to post news about the latest contact with CPAM and, like you, hope that someone of our contributors has better hope and advice for me. T I A and best of Luck Wynne

Sunday Driver, Thank you so much for your interest and assistance. I'll set my sights on going to see them, and take the french and english versions with me. Of course, if I get a 'result' of some sort I'll 'post' it Rgds Wynne

Weedon, Thank you for your supportive Pmail. I was lucky to find advice about my bereavement benefit, thank you, but remain worried about my future CMU when such support from UK terminates. Wynne

[quote user="Sunday Driver"] You are exempt from tax d'habitation if you are a widow and your revenu fiscal de reference is 9,437€ (single person) or less.  The exemption is applied automatically and is based on the information you provided in your last tax declaration.  I have no idea how they arrived at the 400€ you mention.   [/quote] Thank you, Sunday Driver, for that bit of information about the revenu fiscal; it's so difficult getting to the bottom of these things. Even though my neighbour is very helpful with translations and talking to 'officials' for me, I don't like to divulge too much personal info. to him.  If  you, or anyone else, can give me guidance on what to do next I would be very grateful. I have visted the tax offices  before, but found it very stressful and if they become assertive and I don't know what my rights are, I back away. Is there anywhere I can get some translations of the appropriate documents into english, as my french is 'only a little'? T I A Wynne

I am a widow of just over a year,and trying to get my life in france back on the rails. i have applied for exoneration from tax d'habitation and received a reduction to €400. This is exactly the amount of interest I declared as my sole income in my corresponding 'Declaration des revenus'. Can anyone tell me what the basis of assessment is for tax d'habitation exoneration and is it a co-incidence that the two amounts are the same? T I A Wynne