Woodrup

That's interesting, sounds like the seller is responsible in my case for not warning me of French Customs charges at Ebay checkout (I too will make a point of asking in advance next time). Although the jiffy bag has a Royal Mail Customs Declaration CN22 sticker completed by seller, it just gives details of the item, no payment was made. I have contacted him, awaiting reply. But I'm putting it down to a loss as the item was only £12 it will not be worth paying postage - and maybe reverse Customs to return it.

I just collected my Jiffy Bag from the post office, I had to pay €9 Customs charge in addition to the £4.40 VAT stated on the Ebay checkout for the item. I'm a bit peeved that Ebay don't highlight this when they state at checkout "Any supplementary tax will be indicated prior to payment". I did call 3631 before going to La Poste, but was kept on hold too long on 'Option 5 Customs enquiries', not that it would have made any difference in the end. Lesson learned - Don't use Ebay UK in future.

Thanks Dave Lister. Looks like this is a license to print money by French couriers. I'll defo give the number a call if La Poste insist I pay.

Yes its showing TVA on my French Ebay purchase details, is the extra payment La Poste are charging something different? It says this on Ebay - "If additional tax applies to your eBay purchase, it will be indicated on the Item Page and the tax amount will be displayed on the purchase completion page before payment." The Seller says the code number on the parcel proves all taxes/Customs duty are pre-paid at Ebay checkout under 'Tax'.

A couple of times recently I have bought things on Ebay.UK. I pay postage, and "Tax". Ebay say all of these charges are the responsibility of the Seller to highlight at the Ebay checkout. Yet, when La Poste deliver the item they want several euros in addition, "TAV" it is called. The UK seller tells me he conforms to the Ebay rules and it's French Import or Customs at fault because the parcel states a code number that proves tax has already been paid at purchase. Has anyone experienced this annoying nuisance?

.... All the HD one's are working too. Looks like the Search function sorted everything.

Savoie .... Just sorted it. I have a Humax box and did a 'Manual Search' ... found 370 channels (incl Radio). I've now got 6 or 7 BBC 1 non HD channels. I previously had all the regional one's until they went HD, so maybe a few of these will be regional.

Yes I imagined from your posts you didn't have a Tax Office near you. Fortunately mine is just a 15 minute drive. "Rentes viager" could be right. In fact the woman at the Tax Office was keying in 'Legal & General' to get a French code number for it I think, and she couldn't find one. On the paper Declaration page 3, I see it is headed Salaries, Pensions, Rentes.

Thanks. I was afraid of that, already got a 70cm.

I've lost all my BBC channels on Freesat because they've upgraded to HD and now there's a weak signal for them all. Is there nothing I can do to solve the problem?

Thankfully my one UK bank account didn't cause me any probs, I think it sails through year on year. But this year a new problem with 'Pensions/Retraites' on Stage 2, the tick/amount box was grey and couldn't be filled in 🤔. I wanted to submit my new annuity income. Ended up making a face-to-face appointment at Hotel des Impots. But she couldn't complete it either, she tried to key in the name 'Legal & General' but computer said 'no'..... So she printed off a paper Declaration and filled in the amount in box 1AS on page 3. She said I'll be sent a paper Declaration from now on.

Not related to your post Chocfish, but concerning L&G. I just tried to Log into my Annuity account with them. Hadn't done so in the year since it was set-up. It wouldn't accept my details, I was going around in circles, tried New Password, Virtual Assistant, Chat, after about an hour I called them to be told foreign account holders can no longer access their accounts online ! 😮 He said " ...we're hoping to remedy the issue sometime this year or next year." What? Unbelievable. It's no great problem, I can verify the payments entering my French bank account but just found the fact they've stopped this facility for those who live abroad, very strange.

Taxes? I have to go there to collect the parcel my mate sent, if they try to charge me anything I'll do 180 and walk out.

Ooh la la what a faff! 2 manhours and immeasurable stress for one small parcel. Post Brexit sending stuff to UK is a nightmare. Every christmas I send some produits locale and in return my mate sends me xmas puds and mince pies. An hour trying to navigate La Poste website filling in their boxes to obtain and print the all important barcode to ... take to the local Poste where they print the parcel stickers. Except when the barcode doesn't work at the post office 😠. She looked at me blank, "There's no point in me going home and trying again I said, that's the barcode it gave me." So kindly she input all the info again at the desk, luckily only one other customer came in because this took another 30 minutes to do. And €19 to send a 500g tub of Savoie honey 😑. At the end she said "Alors, you must have forgot to put something down on your form." Em no, all the info she asked me was the same as I used to obtain my barcode. Then finally I had to sign 4 FOUR labels, one of which was my copy. That's the last time, next year I'll just do without my xmas puds and mince pies 😭

Good news. Prudential have just said they will refund me the €32. I've given them my UK bank details !

Thanks Hanser. I just looked at their website. Had it been payed into my UK Bank first I could have transferred the £350 for a £2.47 charge at £1/€1.17. That's very good.

€32 for one-of payment? ?

That's strange because L&G have said they will transfer to my French bank for a about £4 per transaction, I forget the exact amount, so to reduce this I've opted for quaterly payments. They sent me an Overseas Mandate France and Monaco form to complete.

Also, the L&G person who gave me the annuity quote over the phone ... didn't know whether it would be taxed at source (I haven't had any dealings with Inland Revenue since I moved here 12 years ago), she said it depends on what I.R. say. So I'm betting that will be another ongoing headache for me to resolve. Honestly they're an absolute nightmare, claiming my State Pension was a walk in the park in comparison.

Exactly. I stupidly told them the truth, one bott of wine a week, non smoker ..... As soon as the damn payments start to kick-in I'll pop my clogs I bet !

I have a small private pension pot with a well known UK company, beginning with P who had a lot of red brick buildings back in the day. They have farmed out my annuity, which includes a 'guaranteed minimum pension' to L&G. Filling out my application form to start drawing it, they want my doctor to verify my cholesterol test in English and accept payment in Sterling. They sent me an 'inconvenience' payment cheque of £150 recently (because of their incompetence in dealing with my pot, I couldn't cash it at my bank and had to send it back. Also they can forward the payments to my French bank via Citibank transfer, but with a £2.85 charge for each monthly transaction. When you consider the number of Brits living abroad, this seems to me to be discriminatory. Rant over ?.

Thanks NormanHYes my French Retraite is only €200 per month but that puts my mind at rest I'm covered for the Assurance Maladie.So with no other incomes than pensions, hopefully I won't be in line for social charges.Thanks for the link, I hadn't seen that before, I'll have a good read of it.

I have just been consulting the posts on completing my Declaration Revenus 2020.I see we can be surcharged for our Assurance Maladie? Is that right?I've lived and worked here for 10 years and have just retired and started my UK Pension and have small French Retraite + the Complementaire.How in fact is my Assurance Maladie now paid for that I am no longer working?I have a Mutuelle also.

.... Hopefully will be in the documentation they send, if not I've the email of my French 'counsellor' so can get in touch with her, she actually replies !!