What the French know in their hearts

[woolybanana]

For once the author of this has got it right. I am only surprised that so few are living off the State!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10463306/Half-of-Frances-active-workforce-living-off-state.html

[idun]

 And there was me thinking that was the beauty of France when I was young and thin and taking a very great interest in my new country of residence. 'Then' it struck me that the only way to get benefit in France was to be working, as unemployment benefit didn't last very long 'then' and still doesn't now, although in the mean time the RSI came in, which I for one applauded.

So for me it is just logical that people on low wages get help to live etc, otherwise they couldn't afford to live. Unless everyone has to have a living wage, then how can we avoid but help those that work to live as the SMIC and minimum wage are not living wages at all.

[EuroTrash]

I think the topic is not so much the percentage on RSA, so much as the percentage employed as fonctionnaires at the taxpayers' expense.

I's not exactly a new revelation though is it - in Sarko's day IIRC people were complaining about figures that showed around a quarter of the working population were foncs, and the French newspapers have been tracking the rise ever since, a thousand new foncs here and a thousand there. It's totally, barking, the less money the state has the more staff it employs, what business would ever dream of doing that? Any French who ever read the newspapers can't help knowing it only too well in their heads never mind their hearts.

[Gardian]

Only too true: I'm sure that most of us who have been over here for a while could write a book.

In the early years of us being over here, it was quite amusing almost 'rogueish', that someone you knew could continually defy almost every form of taxation and obtain State benefits year-on-year. However, the joke has begun to wear a bit thin over time.

I'll say no more over details because this is a public forum: suffice to say that from recent conversations, the fiscal authorities have clearly (and somewhat belatedly) started to take more than a passing interest in such situations.

We shouldn't chastise ourselves over it, but it amuses me though that every year without fail, we all agonise over every last centime of our tax declarations. Should we be using €1.17 or €1.15 to the £1?  Will we pay on time?   Etc, etc.

The truth is that any (very) minor & unintentioned misdeclaration on our part, is but a miniscule percentage of the problem. 

[Alan Zoff]

But there will still be a truckload of administrators ready to catch you out

[suein56]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]But there will still be a truckload of administrators ready to catch you out[/quote]

... and every one of them with a differing idea of how your tax declaration should be completed.

Sue

[Gardian]

But this is precisely the point that I'm making.

We're all (and I include myself in this) paranoid about completing our tax returns to the n'th degree of accuracy. Sensible and laudable.

Does anybody really think though that the Impots spend too many sleepless nights bothering about our Tax Declarations? How many on here (excepting possibly those running a business) have ever had a controle? Not many, if any, I'd guess. 

If I was the Impots gaffer for the area, I'd be looking closely at French Nationals with a consistently low or zero tax liability over consecutive years. A few of those might be worth a 'field visit' just to see their property etc. Its a classic 80 / 20 situation - actually more like 95 / 5.

 

    

[EuroTrash]

The French tax system is pretty joined up, contrary to how it seems. The impots records are linked to the property tax records are linked to the vehicle registration records are linked to goodness knows what else, and the computer can (so I'm informed by accountants) flag up irregularities between declared earning levels and lifestyle indicators, such as people whose declarations show them to be on the breadline and who become the owner of an expensive new car, or who buy a maison secondaire that on paper is beyond their means. AFAIK, HMRC doesn't exchange information with DVLA and the land registry/local councils, or does it?

I guess the French grow up knowing instinctively what can be gotten away with and what can't.

[idun]

 EuroTrash said: I guess the French grow up knowing instinctively what can be gotten away with and what can't.

I do wish that that were true. Since I have returned to the UK I have spent too many hours trying to sort out paperwork and admin for friends as well as my son in France. Because it seems to me, lots of people haven't got a clue about how things work in France, y compris, the fonctionnaires who should.

However, on your other point, I too find that there are some things that are amazingly well linked up in France.

[Alan Zoff]

It was interesting with the supposedly mandatory breathalyser farce that the only people who seemed to take any notice and bother to buy the things were foreigners.

[EuroTrash]

@ idun - I agree they shrug and look helpless when it comes to filling in forms - but find me a French person who doesn't understand the need to keep 'cash' separate from what goes through the bank account.

[mint]

[quote user="Alan Zoff"]It was interesting with the supposedly mandatory breathalyser farce that the only people who seemed to take any notice and bother to buy the things were foreigners.[/quote]

OTOH, AZ, they don't "bother" at all with changing their car number plates to French ones? (present company excepted, of course [;-)])

I don't know how they manage with insurance and so on, seeing that some of them have lived in France for quite a few years.