David

Thanks for that Wicce.  Presently it is raining, and 24 degrees, ideal conditions for the blight it seems.  Our tomatoes are presently not affected, so as soon as possible we will follow your advice. Many thanks, David

Thanks for that.  Unfortunately we were driving a right hand drive (UK) car which had been registered in France, so we had French plates. Perhaps it was the car in front of us which was flashed, although we thought it was abeam of the camera when it flashed. Thanks, David

I recently bought a four wheel electric handicapped scooter in the UK, as I could not find the model I wanted in France. On the first proper run out the scooter broke down, and now does not work.  The problem is electrical, and I suspect it is the speed controller. The scooter is a Sterling Sapphire 2 scooter made by Sunrise Medical. I am in touch with the shop in UK who are being very helpful, but who say that I must take it back to them in the UK for investigation and repair.  This will be difficult and expensive to go to East Anglia as we do not have any plans to return to the UK fo tthe moment. We live in North Deux-Sevres near Bressuire, and I wonder if anyone knows of a scooter repair place near us, or if they can give any advice as to how to diagnose the problem and repair it? Many thanks in anticipation, David  

On the 3rd June we were flashed by the last speed camera on the autoroute from Rouen before turning off for the Eurotunnel. We were rather miffed as we were not speeding.  We were aware of the camera because of the warning sign and also the GPS, which warned us of a 130 kph camera.  Approaching the camera we were not worried as we had plenty of time for the train, and we were only doing 105 to 110 kph.  The weather was dry, clear and sunny. We were flashed when we were perhaps about 50 to 100 metres from the camera.  There was another car in front of us which had just overtaken us, and the camera flashed just as it appeared to us that he was abreast of the camera.  We doubt if he was speeding either as he passed us quite slowly. About two minutes later, after we had passed the camera and passed over the crest of a hill, we ran into a bank of thickish mist, and we wonder if the camera might have had it's speed limit reduced for bad weather. We have not yet received any notification about this incident, but as I am the registered car owner, and in case I am charged with speeding I would like to ask a couple of questions. A) Has anyone else been flashed by this camera when they were not speeding? B) How do you challenge a speed camera speeding fine in France? Many thanks in anticipation, David

Our neighbours have been struck badly by potato blight.  Their whole crop has wilted foliage and they have now cut off all the foliage, and are waiting to inspect the potatoes. We have planted Rosabelle and Belle de Fontenay, and now one of them is showing signs of blight on about 10% of leaves (we are not sure which as the labels blew off in the recent gales). Both types are just starting to flower. We would be grateful for any advice about what to do, and whether we can save any potatoes. We have not used any chemicals as we are trying to be organic. Thank you in advance. David

Benjamin, I hasten to add that if any regulations were indeed bent or broken, then that was only after discussions with the local French tax office, and with their full agreement.  By "bent or broken", I was referring to the strict terms of the regulations, but of course the tax inspectors have the power to vary these regulations at their discretion.  Thus at the end of the day, my tax return was fully legal, even if it did not fully comply with the written regulations.  The only subject of variance was the date at which French tax payments commenced, and UK tax payments stopped. In essence, the UK authorities had nothing to worry about as they were receiving tax income to which they were not strictly entitled, and the French tax authorities seemed happy to lose some tax income in order to get things settled.  This was done at their discretion, so I did nothing illegal, but they did assure themselves that either UK tax or French tax had been paid on all items. I would not dream of trying to complete a form and submit it without attending the local tax office, if there was anything at all which might be misconstrued, and I would not recommend this to anyone. I was just trying to show what can be accomplished in open discussion with your local French tax office, with good will on both sides. I still think that it might be worthwhile for ali-cat to pay a visit to the local French tax office to discuss the situation, and get their agreement. David

Hi Ron, I agree with all you say. You are quite correct about the date of French tax residency, but I found that my local tax office were very flexible.  I said that up to that time we had not finally decided to settle in France, but that after six months we had decided to stay, and so we wanted to do everything correctly - all perfectly true.  This was accepted.  Then in essence we settled for a particular date, say the 1st of January for this thread, (that was not our actual date) to start paying French tax, although we had lived in France for about 6 months (bending rules?).  I thought this was the reason for the different dates on the UK form FD5.  I have just checked my FD5, and the date of becoming resident in France for French tax purposes was several months after our exact date of departure from the UK.  This was accepted by both authorities.  We were then flexible about some of the dates of other investments.  Basically closing UK bank accounts - less paper work?  The tax office took notes of the agreements, and were very firm that there would be no more flexibility.  This was purely a change over flexibility, and as you say there was a certain amount of happiness about actually paying French tax. In retrospect, I think the French lost out a bit on tax, as all flexible dates were after the official date, but they were prepared to accept this in order to save paper work and to ensure that all was done properly for the long term.  Being in posession of all paperwork, they could be sure that tax had been paid, whether in UK or France, and that no tax had been improperly reclaimed. Having chosen, say, the 1st of January 2007 to become liable for French tax, we did not try to claim UK tax back for 2006, but concentrated on reclaiming UK 2007 tax already paid (filling out French forms in May), and having things paid UK tax free after that date. Just seen the time!  Good night, David

ali-cat. I am trying to think of a simple solution for your Incapacity Benefit problem, and to suggest a practical solution.  I am not financially or tax literate so some of my terms may not be exact, but I have been through the same problems, and I would like to explain how I resolved them.  I have to say that I took my problems to the local French tax office and they were extremely helpful.  I am also writing this to try to explain to other newcomers to France how I solved these problems, so I will try to be quite general in my approach.  I just hope that the experts do not castigate me too much and lose the thread of common sense. Please correct me if I am wrong, but it seems to me that as you initially received your IB after 1995 then you are liable to pay tax on the benefit whether it be UK or French tax.  Ignoring the government pension, can you say from your IB notifications whether there is actually a UK tax deduction.  Are you being paid the full benefit tax free, or is there a tax deduction? To keep things simple (I am a simple bloke), I will assume that you are paying UK tax on the IB, as well as UK tax on your government pension (GP). Again to keep things simple, I see that you arrived permanently in France sometime during the summer of 2006, say July 2006.  This helps a great deal.  So let us look at the situation from the first of January 2007. From that date you should be paying French tax on your IB, and UK tax on your GP.  I do not know if you will have to complete a UK tax form for your GP, but if you do the IB should not be included on it.  With respect to the IB, to avoid double taxation you should complete a UK form FD5 to exempt your IB payments from UK tax, and to reclaim any UK tax paid.  You should also do this on any other UK income sources such as bank interest etc.  You may find that some, banks particularly, refuse.  With these you then decide whether to keep paying UK tax and reclaim it every year (after paying French tax), or close the account and transfer to somewhere that will pay without deducting UK tax.  The reason for this is that, as you know, you have to declare all world wide income on French tax forms. As you only arrived permanently in France in July 2006, in practice and with discussion with your local French tax office, you may have some flexibility for the 2006 tax payments.  You are only compulsorily considered tax resident in France once you have lived in France for more than six months, unless you have declared an earlier date. The UK form FD5 asks your exact date of departure from the UK, and also the date on which you became resident in France for French tax purposes.  Thus, after you discuss this with your France tax office, you could for example choose the date 1st January 2007.  Then for the present French tax form for earnings in 2006 you could either not complete the form at all, or just fill in zeros everywhere and submit the form in order to register with the French tax system, and submit the UK form FD5. This is essentally what I did.  I took the UK form FD5 to my local French tax office, asked for a French tax form, explained the problem, and they could not have been more helpful.  They filled the forms in for me, we chose suitable dates for the various incomes varying from the 1st January to the 5th April (in your case 2007), set up our French tax file, submitted the form FD5 for all income we could think of including banks, pensions, and IB, and all was well.  I did turn up with a suitcase full of documents, and a typed summary of UK income.  They looked through the summary, shuddered at the suitcase, and could not have been more helpful.  I am sure that some regulations were bent, and perhaps some were broken, but the French were happy, and I have had no problems for the last three years.  They seemed to take a pragmatic approach, and even though they might lose some tax in the early days, they were happy that the long term would be properly sorted. If you have already declared a date, then again go to your local tax office, and agree with them a practical date of transfer for each item, and get them to accept the UK form FD5. I hope this helps, and has not been too long winded. I now wait for the experts wrath. David

Thanks very much SD. I will let Iain, my neighbour, know.  He might even think it is a bit of a silver lining as he won't have to renew his UK licence at 70 years old! Many thanks for your as always clear, helpful and rapid reply. David

Please can anyone advise how long an ordinary French driving licence, to be issued shortly, for a car is presently valid for? I ask because my British neighbour has been stopped by the gendarms for speeding, and was advised that he would have to change his UK licence for a French one.  He is prepared for this, but as he plans to return to the UK in about two years, he wonders if the new French licence will date expire, forcing him to change it again for a UK licence in the future.  He also wonders how difficult it would be to change a French licence with points deducted for a UK licence.  He is about 65 years old with an otherwise clean licence. I advised that as far as I was aware the French licence currently being issued is valid for life both in France and the UK, provided he does not lose it for driving infringments, but I said that I would check on this forum. Many thanks in advance. David

Thanks for that Allan, Even though I am financially illiterate, I think I understand your clear explanation. David

Many thanks Benjamin, A very clear explanation, and problem solved. Thank you, David

I am sorry, I am not financially fluent and I used the wrong term.  Instead of "tax dividend" I should have said "tax credit", and instead of "share dividend" I should have just said "dividend". After reading allanb's comments - "But it gets better: in the final step of the tax calculation the tax credit (€504 in my example) is deducted from the tax you owe.  It seems too good to be true, but I think it is true", and "So I fully expect to pay no tax on my modest dividend, and to get the tax credit as well.  Maybe there is a Father Christmas", and "Unfortunately I can't confirm the treatment of the tax credit because the simulation program doesn't have a place for it.  But what the heck - report it.  If it reduces your tax (as I think it will) it's a bonus". In my simple mind I thought that this meant that those who have a small dividend not only do not pay tax on that dividend, but they also get a tax credit for the unused amount of tax free dividend which is then used to reduce the total tax bill. Projecting this onto my tax return where I have no dividend income to report, I wondered if I would receive a tax credit for the tax free dividends that I do not have and do not claim, and whether this tax credit would reduce my tax bill.  I hope I have made myself clear this time, Is it clear? In other words does this tax credit apply only to those with dividends, which seems unlikely, or does it apply to all? If it only applies to those with dividends, perhaps I should buy a small amount of shares in order to arrive at a small dividend, and thus receive a tax credit for the balance in order to reduce my total tax bill. If this tax credit applies to all, then does one have to claim it, or is it applied automatically? Hope this is not being too stupid. David

Sorry for not being clear.  The only place on form 2047-K that I can find for UK bank interest is a line near the bottom of page two, on the right hand side, and the line ends with the letters TS.  I confusingly referred to this line as a box. The entry on this line is then transferred to the box TS on form 2042 K. I was wondering if there was anywhere else on form 2047-K that UK bank interest should be listed other than the line ending in TS. Hope this is clearer, and thanks for the reply. David

Where do I put UK bank interest on form 2047-K?  The only place I can see is box TS - is that correct? Many thanks, David

What happens if you do not have any share dividend, and leave all the boxes blank - do you still get the tax dividend automatically? David

I understand that Incapacity Benefit paid to French tax residents should be paid by the UK without deduction of UK tax, and then it is taxed in France. Mine certainly is. David.

J.R. Thank you very much, you are absolutely correct.  After reading your advice the cheapest single fare I can find is Euros 62 for an early morning crossing You advice is even more timely as I had been planning a trip over based on Euros 30 each way, so back to the drawing board.  A 36 hour trip might be too fast as I have to go to Cambridge for a hospital appointment. Again thanks, David

Did you try Eurotunnel?  From my recent experiences Eurotunnel and Speedferries seem to offer the lowest fares. In June I have found single fares on Eurotunnel for Euros 30, which is rather cheaper than pounds 45 on P&O. David

Baz, I fully agree.  I felt great after beating the computer, and I also felt great being able to help my French neighbours.  They have done so much for me that it would take many pages on here to list what they have done.  It was good to be able to do a little in return. I also wanted particularly to thank the people on this forum who helped me, as I could not have done it without them. Again thanks, David

Many thanks to all of those who replied.  Yesterday I printed off the thread, and armed with this I steeled my resolve, girded my loins, braced myself, rolled up my sleeves, spat on my hands, mustered my courage, ran up the flag and attacked the neighbours machine. After about four hours of bitter fighting the computer gave in, the two viruses fell on the field of combat, the speed of operation changed from a very long ten minutes to load the add/remove programs, to normal operation, and I left the field of battle victorious. I left them with the Norton removed, Windows firewall disabled, and the Orange disk loaded.  All seemed to be well.  Initially add/remove programs would not load, and then when it finally did Norton would not delete.  However after lots of button pushing and much bad language muttered under my breath with the whole family gathered around looking over my shoulders, the machine surrendered. Thanks very much to all those who helped, both I and my French neighbours are very grateful. David

Thank you all for your very helpful replies.  I will check the add/remove programs on their machine this afternoon - this morning I have been drawing pretty pictures of the windows symbols on my machine to help me with theirs. Thank you also for keeping it simple as I am not a computer expert.  I will print off the whole thread and see what I can do, but first some questions if I may, and sorry for the long post. A) Do I take it that I am correct to think that there is a problem with conflicting firewalls, and antivirus, and that I must do something quickly, or will the computer keep running unaffected if I do nothing, or if I take my time? B)  Is the antivirus and firewall on the Orange disk just another version of Norton?  If this is the case, then am I right in thinking there will be no conflict between that and the pre-installed Norton on the computer? C) If I am correct in B), do I just have to disable the windows XP firewall, and all will be technically well other than paying for two versions of Norton? D) When removing Norton through the add/remove programs do I just remove anything with Norton or Symantec in the name? E) If I have to remove the program loaded from the Orange disk, does anyone know if there is an uninstall program anywhere?  Perhaps in the program itself?  Or on the disk? F) Because of their total lack of computer savvy or knowledge, and the recklessness of the kids, depending on subscriptions paid, I am thinking of removing the preinstalled Norton; disabling the windows firewall, and anti-virus if any; then reloading the Orange disk for firewall and antivirus which they seem to have contracted to pay for.  My thinking is that they will then have a totally Orange system, and they can complain to Orange in the future if anything goes wrong, so as to be self sufficient and leave me out of it, especially if I am not here.  I know this will not be the best technical solution, but will it work? G) A slightly different matter.  In preparation for working on the French machine, I have been practising on my machine and noticed something.  I uninstalled Norton about a year ago through add/remove programs, but I did not run the Norton removal tool as I was worried about ACT and Winfax as I did not know whether I had these programs (the Norton removal tool says to remove those products first, but they are not on the add/remove list.  I was worried they might be bundled in with Windows XP or Microsoft Office).  Today I have found in the add/remove programs on my machine "Symantec Technical Support Web Controls.  Size 7.23mb".  Should I remove this item?  Can I run the Norton removal tool without knowing whether ACT and Winfax are bundled in with something else on my machine? Many many thanks, David

We have tried the supermarket packs as well, and always some chunks of meat are tender, and some chunks are as tough as old boots regardless of length or type of cooking. Our French neighbours agree with this and they say that for any stew they would only use one cut of beef which is I think  "joue de boeuf" or cows cheek. We have not tried it, so welcome any thoughts. David

I have been helping and encouraging my French neighbours who have three children to connect to the internet.  Eventually they did and after some connection problems which involved the attendance of an Orange technician, they have access to the internet.  However, I feel responsible for ensuring they are connected properly and safely as they know absolutely nothing about computers or the internet. After some initial problems they told me all was well, so I assumed the Orange technician had sorted the Windows XP firewall, removed the Norton antivirus and firewall which came with the computer, sorted the parental control, and installed Orange antivirus.  I did not particularly like this set up but I thought that a French technician would set them up properly, and explain how all the French systems worked.  Being all French they could understand and go forward to the great wide world of the internet. Then later they said they had received an antivirus disk from Orange, so I asked them what that was, and if they had disconnected Norton.  They did not seem to know, so I went up tonight. It seems that the Orange technician had simply mechanically connected them to the phone line.  He had not touched the software. From my checking of their computer it seems to me (their computer is French Windows XP, about one year old, and my French is poor) that they have Windows XP firewall running; the kids have activated Norton antivirus, parental control and firewall and that is running; and that the kids have loaded the Orange antivirus and firewall from the disk and that is running.  All programs are demanding to be allowed to register and update, perhaps also they are demanding payment.  The computer still seems to be running. I have tried to explain that this might cause very great problems, and I have asked them to disconnect the computer for the time being.  I have refused to try to help deactivate or remove any programs in case I make matters worse.  I am not a computer expert. I may be wrong, but I think they are in great difficulty.  I have read them the warning on the Orange disk to remove all other firewalls and antivirus programs before loading the Orange program (they had not read the instructions), and the parents seem to accept there is a problem, but they do not understand and think I am over-reacting.  The computer is working.  The kids say the computer is working so what is the fuss, and the parents are sceptical. Am I correct to tell them they have a problem? At the moment the computer is switched off, and disconnected from the internet, but I cannot be sure how long that will last. Any help or advice very gratefully received. David

Clair, Many thanks for that.  However, I must be getting old or going gaga.  I have checked both the French and English AVG sites quite thoroughly and I cannot find the AVG Free anywhere. Could you please tell me how to find it? Thanks, David