JohnRoss

Hi no it is on the on-line form allanb. If you go to the gouv site and log in with your 3 numbers and call up the 2042 form as if you were going to fill it in there is a little panel with the word Notice in each section of the form which when clicked gives more information about that section, same with the 2047 form.......JR PS Waiting for the rain to stop as each time it gets heavy the line stops working and we lose Internet and phone. Been reported before but typical the fault ain't there by the time they get around to looking for it! Must be a junction box up a pole somewhere filling up! Dare not start filling in the form as could drop out anytime and has done several times today and yesterday and SFR are not responding as is a bank holiday I guess, what a shower literally!  

"Where can I find the note that mentioned this?" On each page of the on-line declaration 2042 or 2047 forms there is a box marked Notice, often a pdf file, which when clicked gives further information and the last bit I mentioned is on the paper version of the 2042 form.......JR

I will do it, yes I will!   I do not like this game!..........JR a.k.a  Bluebottle

Ooh er you must have been talking to my wife!..................JR

I have looked at the on-line forms and for sure one does fill in a 3916 for Bank accounts and I assume Building society accounts, most of them are banks now anyway! However for bonds linked to assurance vie contracts the notes say the following:   "Comptes bancaires à l'étranger : vous avez ouvert, utilisé ou clôturé des comptes bancaires à l'étranger, remplissez la déclaration annexe n° 3916 et cochez la case 8UU de votre déclaration."  "Contrat d’assurance-vie : si vous avez souscrit, modifié ou dénoué un contrat d’assurance-vie auprès d’un organisme établi hors de France, cochez la case 8UT et mentionnez dans la rubrique «autres renseignements», les références de ce contrat, ses dates d’effet et de durée ainsi que les avenants et opérations de remboursement relatifs à ce contrat. Attention : vous devez déclarer vos comptes bancaires et contrats d’assurance-vie à l’étranger sous peine d'amendes." "Bank accounts abroad: You have opened, used or closed bank accounts abroad, complete the Schedule No. 3916 and check the box 8UU of your return statement." "Contract of life insurance: if you subscribe, modified or settled a life insurance contract with an organization established outside of France, check the box 8UT and mention in the "other information", references in this contract, its effective dates and duration as well as any amendments and refund transactions related to this contract. Warning: you must declare your bank accounts and life insurance policies abroad, fines apply." Now there is a box 8UT but most folk I have talked to one way or another seem to think you cross box 8TT. It does not look as if you give details of start date and company name etc on 3916 for assurance vies however I note that there is a page after you fill in the on-line 2042 for bringing stuff to the attention of the tax man. They carry forward what ever you put last year like holding an E121(S1) although your age if stated would be a year out and would need modifying so I guess this is where you put stuff about assurance vies? The notes alongside 8UT say:  Plus-values connues en report d'imposition non expiré. Si montant est inexact, corrigez case 8UT  "Capital gains tax deferral known unexpired. If the amount is incorrect, cross box 8UT." Any thoughts folks?.....................JR 

Ok allanb but where?..................JR

Ok have done..............JR

Many thanks and have PM'd..............JR

I am even more confused now! On looking back at stuff when we used an accountant for the first 3 years we were in France it is clear that they did not put our Lombard Bond on the 3916 form, only our UK bank account and our UK building society account. The Lombard bond says assurance vie on it and maybe assurance vies are not put on the 3916? Our CMI bond, also assurance vie, from which we take money every quarter by sale of units has the profits, I assume, declared every year on the 2042 and 2047in line CH as instructed so to do by Siddalls.  The CMI bond also does not appear on the 3916. The thing is this, is the existence of an assurance vie declarable on 3916 as bank accounts and various types of savings accounts like building societies are? Surely, as the accountant implied to us, an assurance vie bond that has no activity in terms of money in or out and which, as I have said before, has made a loss and no gain and was put in place before we moved to France is of no interest to the tax man?  Help!.............JR 

I agree the French is not clear but if it does mean opened then that would make some sense as they ask when an account was closed during the tax year as well. So by implication that would suggest that they do in fact mean opened. Which then would suggest that the accountant was right. However maybe they mean open i.e. existing. All other accounts held by us are declared each year as they are not only open but active .i.e. money in or out or transfered etc. I think I did include it on the 3916 a few years ago but nothing has changed other than it reducing in value further due to market forces. I see that I was banging on about this here in 2009 and it is still not clear what they want from us, I hate this time of year. Having looked back I see that we had one accountant for the first two years and another for the next and they were both clear on this point but what do I know maybe they were both wrong!..................JR

That is interesting. Where would you declare the losses on the two forms?.......................JR

"You need to declare accounts that have been opened, closed or used"      What about accounts that were opened before arrival in France, never used i.e. no money put in or taken out, and not closed? I should say that the accountant we used for the first couple of year said we did not have to declare it on 3916 as we took no money from it and in fact and sadly it has made a loss all the time we have had it!.................JR 

Thanks for that. Yes one should be frugal and not spend the £10 all at once! The debate on the forum seems to be going on again about whether or not to add Govt pensions to other pensions to insert into 1AS and 1BS and the Govt pension again in 8TK. I thought this was made clear that you do last year. One odd thing is that for the last two years they have sent to me only one 2042 K form but two 2047 K forms, maybe they are running out of paper. I note they are pushing folk to do the return on-line and to request that they cease sending forms in the post. I always like to have the paper ones as a back up just in case something prevents me doing it on-line like the modem being fried in a thunder storm at the wrong moment as we have had several times before!..............JR  PS Still waiting for the big one with premium bonds only a few diddy ones so far! 

Maybe a silly question but is the UK Winter fuel allowance declarable on the French tax forms and do you add it to pensions in 1AS? I assume you would pay tax on this along with premium bond prizes and OAP Christmas bonus...............................JR

I gather the noise maker is something that the driver has to remember to switch on so something to be remembered when getting into the car! Well we done it guv and ordered one so hope to get delivery mid July. One thing that worried me is that the Renault bloke said I could drive my old Megane up to the garage when the Zoe is available for collection. Thing is that the C.T. may have just expired by then, sounds a bit iffy to me or maybe driving it to a garage is ok? Anyway will report on how it goes once we have it.....................JR PS The free Wall box and free installation of same by British Gas in the UK is really annoying, poo! 

Will do. The Veolia guy seemed quite happy for me to provide a feed to the Wall Box i.e. either digging up the cable to the barn or running a new cable underground from next to the tableau electrique to where they are mounting the wall box. They want to fit the differential trip and wire this to the to the house supply and the other end to the Wall Box .Will know more next week as do not yet have a firm delivery date if I order one and will see the Renault agent to see what he can do.......................JR

I tend to agree. If you bought a 3kW Nightstore heater the shop would not insist that you have an electrician to install it though they might recommend that. As I said earlier, jobs for the boys. They won't sell you a Wall Box without them installing it. They say because they don't want the car to get a bad name if it all goes wrong. The agency Veolia/Proxiserve sell the Wall Box and not Renault and Renault own the battery being charged so there you go! Still it is the route one has to go if you want one and I do!...........JR

Got the devis for the installation of the Wall Box and the extra bits in the house and it came to only 347.37 for the electrical work and 690 for the wall Box so not as much as I had thought, yipee! Now got to get a firm delivery date from Renault and I think we might just go for it. The lack of charging at any place other than our home or public charging points is something I think will change soon and press info about the statements made by the Renault boss might indicate that this is so. Not a problem for us as I only see the vehicle being used for local shopping trips etc. I got a map of this area and made a circle at 50 km from home and I don't see us wanting to use it to travel any further than that just now. I think, as others have said, that it is an ideal second car and I would not yet consider it as a primary transport device but, as they say, watch this space.................JR

Bloke came to look at our electrical installation to quote for Wall Box installation today and said that the cable to the barn was too long and that he recommended a much shorter one. I had already calculated the cable resistance by loading it with a 2kW heater and measuring voltage drop, live and neutral, and with a 3 kilowatt load there would be 93 watts dissipated in the 25 metre length of the cable which would be a bit worrying after time had passed as it might accelerate the aging process of the insulation. So I would have to have an external wall box mounted on the house and either cut and lift the barn cable close to the house and make other arrangements for the barn or fit a new cable to the tableau électrique box in the house and run this 5 metres underground to where he suggested fitting the wall Box. Sounds easy but believe me it ain't.  He quoted 980 euros for the cost of the Wall Box and its installation if I provide the active cable for him to connect to the wall box. He also said that I must have a differential trip fitted in the house for the Wall Box feed and that would have to be mounted underneath the existing wall mounted tableau électrique as ours was old and modern trips would not fit. Our existing tableau électrique is old and has a mixture of trips and fused switches so he may be right but I will pop into Bricomarché and check that this is true. This extra work he thought would cost about another 340 euros. This makes a total of 630 for the electrical work and 690 for the exterior wall box! It all adds up and no mistake. Formal quote to come next week so decision time then!........................JR

Having read a bit more a bit more about the Zoe I have now come to the conclusion that the charger may be built into the car and the wall box is just an interface between either 3 phase or single phase house mains supply and the car. In which case it seems very strange that you are not allowed to wire it with a 16 plug to plug in anywhere. The bloke giving a devis arrives on Tuesday next so will know more then. Sounds a bit like jobs for the boys as Renault use an agency called Veolia to find a local approved electrician to come and give you the devis for installing the wall box. The agency must get something out of it and so does the sparks of course. Will watch out for him talking the job up in price. It is this sort of thing that puts you off buying the car! Of course I could be being just a bit Victor Meldrew about this!.......................JR 

Yes the occasional lead for a 16 amp socket was withdrawn after some problems after long term use. Must have been more than just a lead and I suppose included a bridge rectifier and a constant current device. The multipin socket on the front of the Zoe might have had a centre tap on the battery in which case the lead may have charged the two halves in parallel.The wall box I saw looked too small to house a transformer in a 3kW unit. Maybe they will bring it back when sorted. They insist on an approved sparks doing the wall box charger installation and it is their battery so there you go. I have asked for a free devis for the installation due in a couple of weeks and then I will make a decision whether to buy or not. They also made it very clear to me that fiddling with the battery was verboten and only their chaps could touch it! Not sure about Hydrogen cells, remember the Hindenberg! Mind you one sits on top of the Zoe battery so don't know how comfortable it would be if it shorted out, nasty!..................JR

Had a test drive of the Renault Zoe the other day and quite impressed with it. Ideal for local driving and not that expensive to run apart from the 400 volt battery hire at 79 euros/month. Insurance companies seem a bit slow to update on this and it is not clear if you ask for a devis for assurance if the rented battery is included. The Renault agent told me the battery must be insured by me. Important as whilst not your property it might set you back 7000 euros if it was damaged in an accident or stolen. I pressed the point with one insurance company and they quickly revised their quote a bit upwards. 100km seems to be the range on full charge though Renault are a bit more optimistic.  One problem made clear in several unbiased assessments is that you are tied to your wall box charger, which must be installed by an approved electrician for a fee, at home or charging points in town and there are not many of them yet! The withdrawal of the occasional charging lead means that if you visit friends they cannot live more than 50kms away or you will not get back home unless they also have a wall box! Despite these problems I like it and for a second car for local shopping etc great but not for long trips and top speed ok for country roads and non-motorway roads but not motorways I suspect. Very smooth and quiet drive and nothing for the left foot to do as an automatic. Impressive acceleration and regenerative braking. Has anybody else tried it and what did you think. Seriously thinking of getting one despite not spending as much as 79 euros a month on diesel!..........JR

I would be interested to know too. We have a well which is not used for owt as whilst the chemical analysis was good the water was full of nasty bacteria. What depth of water would be needed ours, as you might expect, is low in summer and a lot higher in Winter. Quite close to the house so long pipes would not be needed......................JR  

I managed to contact someone at a local Groupama agency and asked him by email what exactly was covered. His reply was:  "Concernant le RC Diverses Agricoles, celle-ci vous couvre pour les dommages causés aux autres dans le cadre de votre vie privée."  I then asked if he would give me examples of an event that would be covered by this insurance and he gave the following two examples.  "Concernant la RC, elle fonctionne par exemple si vous cassez un bien chez quelqu'un, dans un commerce ou si vous blessez quelqu'un en circulant à vélo par exemple."  Now frankly I don't understand what is meant by either example and maybe I am just being thick. I will get back to him but does anyone have a clue what these are about. We do have house and motor insurance with the same company but don't understand why hurting someone on a bicycle or what the other example has to do with RC Diverses Agricole. Any clues anyone?..............JR

The Supra Orlando Olliare, the model we have, has a turbo fan fitted as standard and which blows air underneath the fire box and creates a warm draft so yes a fan helps indeed. It is either operated by a built in thermostat or manually with an on off switch.......JR