Dordogne Roofer

Hi there,

Catherine and I (Aaron) are going to The France Show at Olympia today (Friday).

Anyone else heading there?

Chatter Static

France is more French so im heading there, flippancy aside those shows are about lining other peoples pockets everything you need to know can be learnt in this forum and on the ground in France. Imho

dmu

+1
It'll be interesting to know whether there were stands, e.g. The Connexion representatives, where "advisors" went into such nitty-gritty things as healthcare coverage, Inheritance Tax, setting up a business, etc....

Tweedpipe

All very valid points.
And how to legally set up a procuration (power of attorney) for an elderly parent in France, or for an ailing partner etc. To allow the courts to excercise la tutelle (legal gardianship) tends to be costly, and one never has real control. To act as tuteur (legal guardian) yourself, allows for complete transparency, but administration-wise is somewhat of a nightmare - even when fluent in French. Mme TP has been acting as tuteur for the last 4 years, so I've learn't a lot about the subject too. Believe me when I say it's a tough task. It would be interesting if that general question was raised at a 'France' promotional show, to see the reaction of general knowledge on the subject. Not an issue one likes to think about, but an unfortunate real-life situation, which ultimately many may encounter if planning for, or already retired in France.
Regarding death in France and the essential formalities, I believe there's probably more info on this forum's FAQ guides than anywhere else.
Apologies for the morbid subject, but that's life. No pun intended.
Enjoy the show at Olympia.

Dordogne Roofer

Hi guys,

The France Show was very interesting. We got there around noon and left about 3.30pm.

It's on Sat and Sunday too.

We got lots of useful magazines and literature. There were people from removals, notaries, banks, estate agents etc.
There were seminars on in two areas. We went to a seminar on banking and Brexit. It made us realise we need to set up a French Bank account ASAP. We will probably use Credit Agricole Britline online banking, low charges and they don't need a French address to open it.
There was a notaire stand (I presume French Government funded as it didn't seem to be a business as such), the guy was very helpful. He sat us down and ran through what a notaire should be doing for us.

Don't pay full price for the tickets as you can get them cheaper, and pop over the road to Tesco for food as it's 7 quid for a panini ay the expo!

EuroTrash

Shouldn't they be selling croque monsieur or stuffed croissants it's the French show not the Iti show...
Seriously, these things all sound very useful, but if you're intending to live in France for real the one thing you have to get figured out in advance is your route to healthcare in France. Just about everything else will basically be possible and negotiable, and you can make your decisions and fine tune exactly how you do it and what provider you use once you're here. But if due to your personal situation you have no route to state healthcare, then you have no route to state healthcare, full stop, brick wall. Maybe there is a seminar or a stand about this and maybe people don't take any notice, I realise it doesn't sound the sexiest subject in the world but there are so many posts on the various forums from people who thought they had everything covered, who've bought their house and moved in and sorted all the utilities and bank accounts (maybe even registered their cars), then they decide they'll go and sign up for healthcare but the eejit at CPAM sent them away, what should I do now? - no I'm not on a UK pension and I'm not working, and I don't have any income I'm living on savings - what do you mean, I'm not eligible for state healthcare???

dmu

Thanks for the feedback!
Did he tell you about the 60% Taxe de Succession if you don't get legally bound?
(I think BE France should have a stand at the next Show!!)

Chatter Static

I can see us getting tossed out......

I went to an Accountancy software show at Olympia once, I wont be going again... There should be laws barring accountants to being in groups larger than 1

Tweedpipe

Ah, I missed this post earlier.
I disagree about getting tossed-out! In fact most of you regulars would be the stars of the show.
Here are a few suggestions on who should be manning which stands at the 2018 France Show:

ET: Adviser on French telecom operators, tax returns etc
Chatter static: Adviser on Septic tanks, currency exchange, etc
InVinoVeritas: Adviser Self employment etc
Graham miln: Construction Handycam operator
Im & er: Sexual matters advisers (as the name implies)
Bigglesworth/Cyrian/: Hornets nests/ Car insurance, property rental etc
Scots in Treignac: B&B gites adviser
Grannybunz: Hen keeping adviser
Loy loy: Schooling in the Gers adviser
Dennerlymum: Teaching in France adviser
The Plumber: (sous reserve) BogsRus - Pipes & stopcock adviser
Petitefrancaise: Expert-comptable promoter
DMU: Healthcare (forearmed/forewarned) adviser
Novocastrian: Religious/ethnic tolerance adviser
Pulaski: Battery hens (treatment on going flat) etc
Tweedpipe: Barman (during the show) psychiatric help (after hours)

EuroTrash

Do you mean, offering psychiatric help, or requiring it

Tweedpipe

The latter. Obviously!

Dordogne Roofer

Hi there, what's the '60% Taxe de Succession'?

I'm so bombarded with lingo at the moment!

dmu

The person you spoke to at the Show obviously didn't tell you (unless you didn't mention that you weren't married).
The 60% Succession (Inheritance) Tax is applicable to all nominated heirs who aren't legally to the deceased, e.g. concubine, friends, etc... They must pay 60% of the value of their share of the French property bequeathed, within 6 months (or refuse the inheritance).
In the case of joint-property, and if there's no Will, the deceased owner's share of the property goes to their next of kin and the surviving "partner" must joint-own with the heir(s), with all that that may entail. If the deceased was sole owner, and doesn't make a Will, the whole property will go to his/her next-of-kin and the surviving "partner" will probably be homeless.
There are Read-Me: FAQ threads on the subject (French Inheritance, "Partner" Status) - the Notaire is best placed to advise on how best to protect each partner.
The most simple solution is to get married or PACSed!

EuroTrash

It's what each of you would pay in inheritance tax should something dreadful happen to one of you, and the other inherits that person's share in the property.

So, say you own the property 50/50 and it's valued at 200,000€. If one of you inherits the other partner's 100,000€ share in the property, then as a non relative they would have to pay a little under 60,000€ inheritance tax to the government (for non relatives there's a tax-free allowance of somewhere around 1,500, so it would actually be 60% of somewhere around 998,500).

Didn't we discuss this in another thread - we pointed out that it's a great advantage to be married when property is involved because there is no inheritance tax between married partners. But you said you don't want to at the moment.

dmu

Great minds think alike!!
But we can't say too often that the surviving partner of a couple not legally bound (that word went mssing in my post) can find his(her)self in serious financial difficulties in the event of death, not to mention potential problems with the other heirs, AND problems if they should separate. No one knows what the future holds.....