Roz

Thanks very much for your reply P, I think I'll have to give HMRC a call... and ask about last year's refund at the same time!

I will be declaring my pension for the first year this year, and want to make sure I get it right! I am now in receipt of a UK pension, plus a local govt (teachers) pension and two small AVCs.  My question is: can I lump all of my TP and AVCs together? Apparently technically an AVC is an Annuity not a Pension (I was corrected by the person I was talking to when organising the payments when I referred to it as 'pension') But on the UK Pensions website, they seemed to be regarded as the same thing.  If my AVCs (which are directly linked to my TP) are not considered 'pension' and have to go in a different box on the tax form, presumably I will have to try and claim back all of the first year's tax I'm paying? Also this reminded me that we have never had our tax refund on savings applied for last year - is anyone else still waiting?  It's a very small amount - but it's ours!

Thanks for such a speedy response SD! 

I too would be interested in knowing the answer to this question... I've been trying to find the current interest rates on a Livret A with Credit Agricole.  The website explains all about them without saying what the rates actually are.  Can different banks offer different rates on Livrets or is it set in stone for all of them?  Could any kind soul volunteer a sensible phrase for me to use if I tried phoning?  How does this google translation sound? "Quel est le taux d'intérêt en cours sur un compte Livret A,  s.v.p.?" 

[quote user="Benjamin"]Roz If you are in receipt of a UK E121 issued to you as a qualifying State Pensioner then you will only get the same refund as a French person (mainly in the range of 60-70%). You can either take a chance and not insure the rest of the costs or you will need to buy a top up insurance. This assumes you were here before October 2007. If you are in receipt of an E121 issued for others reasons i e incapacity, then you may qualify for 100% reimbursement for the majority of your health costs. [/quote] Thanks Benjamin, it's all becoming clear... such a pity reaching that certain age seems to be accompanied by a switching to those new long-life bulbs.. it takes so much longer for the light to actually come on!!

[quote user="AnOther"]The need for top up insurance is nothing to do with the topic at hand ! [/quote] I was responding to patf's post, dearest, I've now included it in  my post to make it clearer.. and I have smacked my cyber wrist for straying from the path of the OP. [kiss]

[quote user="Patf"]Remember that once you or your spouse qualifies for an E121, what this means in practical terms is that the british government pays approx. £2500* per year for each of you to the french health service. Whether you consume more or less than this amount of health care or not. This entitles you to (normally) 60-70% of the cost of the care. For the rest you need to pay for "topup" insurance. And more for dental care, specs etc. You never get to the luxury of 100% cover given in the UK to pensioners. * this is the figure I was given 2 years ago. ps to go back to the original question - I got my E121 first . Newcastle sent an extra form for husband and when we went to the CPAM with the forms all they wanted was our marriage certficate to prove his entitlement. CPAMs might vary in their requirements. [/quote] That's a bit of a blow!! I was hoping we wouldn't have to have top-up insurance once I reached the magic number! Hmmm still trying to convince my O/H that we are financially better off here..  so when my OA pension is added to his private pension next year, we might save a bit on our URSSAF bill, but will probably pay even more in Contributions Sociale?? Heyho! It's always swings and roundabouts, isn't it! Thanks for all your input lovely people! :)

Does anyone know when one should apply for the E121? Is it from four months prior to reaching that Certain Age, same as the pension?  I never thought I would be so keen to wish away my last year as a pre-pensioner!! Suddenly I can't wait to get my hot little hands on some extra dosh - and now it sounds like there's another bonus in store! Whoopee!  I had heard that there were plans to close the "loophole" regarding the husband being registered as the wife's dependent - please tell me this isn't true!

I couldn't find any in our area, I found this UK company online who were happy to post abroad, just send them an email and they will be happy to help. The last lot I bought from them lasted me years and years (but that was in the UK) -  you only need to add a flat teaspoon to, say, the average hanging basket. It is important to hydrate it first and add it to your soil mixture before potting up... otherwise it can push the plants out of the pots! Good luck! http://www.greenacresdirect.co.uk/water_product_details.php?prodID=36&name=Broadleaf+P4

Hi, I'm reading posts with reference to tri-phase as I'm trying to understand why we have it... Our property also used to be a working farm, but had already been modernised and renovated by the previous (French) owners. We have underfloor heating in three rooms but we only ever have the middle one switched on,  and also two big water heaters at each end of the house, one of which is now turned off.  I have discovered that we are paying around 92 euros abonnement on each facture, compared with our friend's 39 euros . They have a single phase supply, which is presumably what makes the difference?  We occasionally get trip-outs and dimming lights and I thought this would be a reason that Soreigies would suggest that we would NOT be able to change to single phase, but the previous post suggests the opposite is true. As our annual electricity bills were exceeding 2,000 euros - (and we also have to buy/burn wood in order to heat the upstairs in the evenings via insert with ducts)  I was thinking about approaching Soreigies about switching to single phase.. if anyone can throw some light on this [I][:)] I'd be really grateful!

That's great - thanks very much both!

Hi Clair, could you tell me please,  if we would be exempt from tax habitation if my husband was 60 in January this year? Or does it also depend in income?  If it is just on age, do they know automatically? We have received this year's bill (due Nov) and am wondering, having read this thread, if we may be exempt?

Take heart! We completed an R43 to re-claim tax paid on interest on savings for 07/08 after completing our tax forms here, and have now received our cheque!

 The letteres are right here in this thread - first topic Cancelling a French ISP  http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1076170/ShowPost.aspx  I used the first two, the second one I sent to my bank to cancel both Orange and FT prelevements. Even though Neuf say they manage the cancellation with FT for you, I thought it best to cancel the prelevement with the bank so there would be no misunderstanding. It's only been a few days, so I'm hoping everything will fall into place.. fingers and toes cross of course..

Hi Sweet17, We have just recently taken up the Neuf offer, the Neuf box arrived within three days, the following day the line went dead as promised, the next morning I installed the Neufbox, added the telephone, and hey presto, the line was on. There was a minor problem though.. at first every time I picked up the handset the line was dead and it took a few taps of the button to get it going.. This meant people phoning us were getting a funny beep instead of a ring tone.Also calls would drop out after a few minutes which all made me think I had made a terrible mistake!   However, I called the free helpline 1077 and the technician, whilst not speaking English seemed to grasp the problem despite my awful Franglais! The line dropped out while we were speaking, within a couple of minutes he rang back to say everything was bien!  Haven't had any problems since - and lots of nice long FREE calls to family and friends in the UK and US. Tres bien!! I used Clair's cancellation letters on here to cancel Orange at Bordeaux and to cancel the prelevements at the bank. So far no probs. Good luck!

I'm sure you will get yours soon Minnie, ours came a week ago, it says the payment is due on the 15th September..

Hi Nell, hope you don't have to wait as long as we did! We put our FD5 into the Melle tax office last September, and rang our UK tax office at the end of October to enquire how things were proceeding, only to discover they hadn't received it. When I enquired at Melle it seemed they had a query with one of our figures and had sat on the file until we contacted them! (thank goodness I was just a little impatient!) So it would be well worth checking with your Centre D'impot in a week or so to ask if everything went off okay. Also, if you email the tax office in the UK after a couple of weeks, they will reply with some kind of time scale. We finally got our rebate from O/H's private pension on May 1st this year. Unfortunately our savings bank (Abbey) do not participate in the Refund scheme and do not use Form 105  to generate a refund of tax paid on the interest on our savings, which we still haven't received. We had to re-apply to the tax office on Form R43. It seems we will have to apply every year for this - so Good Luck!!

Thanks for all the help, I guess they need to check if your financial situation has changed from the previous year - it's thrown up an interesting point for me - I need new glasses!!! I didn't realise those little black arrows on page 3 had a number in them that corresponded to the ones on page 2 - thanks Sue! [geek]

Does anyone happen to know if we declare income net or gross? Is it based on all income, including interest on savings?? There seems to be no indication of where to put different figures, will any box do?

Clair, thank you so much for providing these letter formats - what a godsend! [kiss]

I emailed the same office where BobDee was quoted 1.3636  [email protected]"  in order to get something "in writing" I added: "For the purpose of calculating pension received from UK" and was told 1.4237.. it's  clearly a minefield!

If they are really big containers you could put some chunky pieces of polystyrene (from electrical goods packaging, etc) in the bottom first. They will create some spaces for drainage,like broken pottery does, but without adding weight to the pots.  This is especially useful for large containers of summer bedding which don't need really deep soil, you can fill a good third to a half of the pot with polystyrene. But for perennials you would use much less, as they'll need the space later. I don't buy expensive compost, so I do make sure to give mine regular feeds from May to September. Good luck!

Thanks, is this still just for single parents? Might even be worth getting divorced! What a shame, just when we almost made it to 30 years! I wonder what is meant exactly by Alimony... an allowance? We don't actually give him the money to pay the utilities - even we're not that silly - we pay them by direct debit - [blink] oh dear, now even I think we sound silly...

[quote user="Ron Avery"] Self employed people's expenses are subject to more scrutiny than early retired couples in France, begging receipts is more for getting money from petty cash than a tax return of a self employed person, but we digress. It helps when asking questions relating to tax to give as much detail as is necessary to enable an informed answer, yet not once have you mentioned the age of your dependent son. If you had mentioned that in the OP you would have got a quicker and more concise answer ....... although if you had said he was over 21 you may have also got some pointed comments but that is what Forums are like, you don't necessarily get the answer  you want. I'm sure if somebody had said of course you can claim for the expense of a second home in the UK and keeping an unemployed 28 year old you would have been very pleased with the response. Oh, and I'm sure you would wish to thank those who took the trouble to post informative replies to you.[:P] [/quote] Yes, Ron, I agree. Thank you and everyone else who posted information regarding my original question.  My son is over 21 - and, wow!  it looks like Clair has unearthed some really relevant stuff - thanks Clair!

It seems that you can't ask an honest question here in relation to tax savings (which self-employed people sometimes take to extremes, begging restaurant/petrol receipts etc, for 'expenses' - which I have experienced personally) without some people treating you as if you'd asked the easiest way to swindle the French government! We have both worked hard our entire lives and have never asked for so much as a penny from anyone, anywhere. Yes, we've opted for early(-ish) retirement and are needing to watch our outgoings. But we are more than happy to pay our taxes. Coming from the PAYE system to self-assessment is a whole new world for us. Forgive me for enquiring whether there were any legitimate tax reductions that we were unaware of. There is defiinitely a chill wind that blows through here about this time of year! Relax guys! [kiss]