Should we go or should we stay?
 

Hi there, we currently live Scotland but are very keen to have our own land. Not being millionaires, this just ain't going to happen in the UK.
Seriously thinking of France as an option. We are both still of working age. My question is, removing the cost of property, would we be worse off tax-wise etc by making this move?
Would be very grateful for any constructive comments from all you lucky (?) expats.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

As indicated in another similar post today, have a read through this as a general guide. Moving to France FAQ's
So often the best dreams can turn into one's worst nightmare, and this can be particularly true when it comes to Brit expats in France. Related link HERE.
Frequently the cause can be that the persons have done very little or no research before moving here. Or have had one or several French holidays, and left on the rose-coloured glasses on returning home. Living permanently in France may be a wonderful experience for some, but so many struggle with the realities of the French way of life after a short period.
To plagiarize a frequent comment from DMU, forewarned is forearmed.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

What do you do? can you get jobs there? will be the main questions to consider.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
I'm not well placed to make comparisons, but my first reactions are:
- do you speak French?
- how will you earn a living?
- what do you intend to do with your piece of land?
- are you married or simply "partners"? do you have dependents?
We can only advise if you give us more info on yourselves.... :)
P.S. post crossed with TP's! Indeed, I didn't say fore-warned is fore-armed, as we didn't have any info on their circumstances!

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

Hi dmu, well I would come with my husband. We have school French (I've managed Gaelic whilst living on Skye and husband is a linguist). We wouldn't have a mortgage and I plan to do self-catering. The land is for isolation. Yes, Skye is too crowded for us!

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

Self-catering? any chance you could clarify do you mean you cater event's, offer self catering accommodation?.

You would have to be able to cater to local food taste's the French love their food and every region differs and most local supermarkets offer plates cutlery and traiteur services you just head to the charcuterie counter in the supermarket most of them hire out trailers to take the food away and keep it cold and they wash it all up at the end as well.

Every Village fete has some form of catering on top of what the locals inhabitants cook and it is just as easy to get for home parties as well.

So it's an extremely established industry...

You pay tax first argue about whether it's due or not after that tends to cripple small businesses.

If you want land with isolation it will need to have a house on it already as new builds outside of towns villages and hameauax is very limited and tend to be based on agricultural needs and you can't knock down a existing house here and replace it with something different in the countryside in towns villages and hameaua that doesn't tend to be an issue.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

The people who rent Self - catering accommodation on Skye have an image or a romantic notion to visit and make a rather long journey which may be one of the reasons you find it not isolated enough.


There are plenty of isolated parts of France, but it is very difficult to persuade enough tourists to come and make your business viable.


If its land you are after, have you looked seriously at renting a croft in the Highlands and Islands. Have you contacted the Crofting Commission ?

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

Isn't that a bit of a contradiction in terms? Or maybe not.
Which parts of France have you visited? How isolated do you want? There are isolated place where you can never see a soul, except when you drive long distances (possibly the equivalent of one end of Skye to the other) to your nearest shop, but how many gite guests are you going to get there?

France and taxes: well if you're working, it's not income tax that's the burden so much as social taxes. Contributions are high (though they may get lower soon, Macron is making encouraging noises in that direction) and if you don't contribute, you have no entitlement to healthcare or anything. If you work and pay your dues, you may not have a lot left for yourself but France looks after you (eg reductions in property taxes and extra help with healthcare if you're on a low income). Or that's been my general experience.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

I'm a retired translator and can honestly say that I did well to retire when I did. All professional French people (engineers, lawyers, managers, etc...) are bilingual and write directly in English nowadays. Maybe your OH is another type of linguist - would he find work in an isolated area? and if he can work from home, he'd need to set up a business structure separate from your self-catering one.
Maybe she didn't pick up this point, but ET can give you up-to-date advice on the subject.

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

No you're quite right DMU, she didn't pick up on it:p ! but she has now.

To the OP, yes as DMU says I could write an essay on this, having switched my principal activity to translation after discovering the hard way that being a British journalist/copywriter in France didn't pay the bills, and that tutoring drove me up the wall - third time lucky I suppose. But I'll spare you the essay and just say that my experience is, there's plenty of translation work. I always had done all three activities so it wasn't entirely from scratch, but I decided to give up on the other two and focus on translating around 4 years ago, I invested in a good CAT tool and learned how to use it, and obviously the first couple of years involved a certain amount of scratching around and doing boring work for sub prime clients at not great rates but as of last year I started being able to pick and choose and at present, touch lots of wood, things are peachy. So overall I would say it needn't take too long to get established and there is work out there. However, would need a good internet collection because if you're receving and delivering big files such as magazines and brochures with lots of artwork, you'll have problems if the internet is slow, and in remote areas of France that can be a problem. There are still parts of France with no internet coverage at all.

If translating is what OH is thinking of, he could take a look at https://www.proz.com/ to see the kind of jobs there are around but probably more usefully, take a look at the forum on there - he may have to sign up as a non paying member to read the forum, or he might be a member already and I'm telling him how to suck eggs.

Hope that helps!

Re: Should we go or should we stay?
 

Thanks EuroTrash, all good info there. Glad to hear that it’s all worked out well for you after years of thankless graft.