Helen1964

As I suspected. So unfortunately that won’t work for C.2s since he can’t get them to tax him.

Moses2013

Although the Peak District is always mentioned, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is often overlooked and maybe that would be a good alternative for you?
Solva down to Penally seems like a great place to explore and have to get over myself sometime again.

Helen1964

Let me know how you get on. Certainly it would be closer to the ferries for the continent.

Moses2013

You can get some inspiration here:-), https://stay-pembrokeshire.co.uk/webcams/
Was watching Saundersfoot Beach webcam earlier and even on a day like today the beach is always nice. They are currently fixing a wall it seems.

Helen1964

OK, you’re selling it to me….. It’s not an area I’ve ever visited.

Meanwhile, C.2s, apologies for hijacking your thread (I keep doing this, I know). Have you tried posting on the Italian forum about your tax/healthcare problems?

C.2s

No, it's okay. It's good that people are contributing their thoughts.

Getting citizenship in Italy is a long and complex process. In fact it's hard to say how long. Other people say it took them somewhere between 4 and 13 years. And there's a lot of shifting the goalposts about the requirements. Especially as the government isn't keen on immigration. IF we were really committed to becoming citizens we could fight more.

Both of us speak pretty good Italian. Good enough to have Italian friends who don't speak English, and I am the President of a Sporting Association. We've been able to negotiate lots of the bureaucracy. So it's more about our motivation to fight. Given that we're thinking that living here full time doesn't seem right for us.

That's not only for the reasons I've previously mentioned, but also because we don't want to lumber our offspring with having to tidy up after us (because after all living somewhere permanently or very long term increases the chances of dying in that place also!) ... For example Italy has a law that divides property equally between the children of the family. It's automatic and It doesn't matter what you say in your will it can't be avoided. We have 5 kids in total. They all get along but imagine how difficult it might become for them all trying to negotiate Italian bureaucracy when none of them speak Italian if one or both of us died or became very ill and unable to look after ourselves.

Anyway, in short we lack the motivation to overcome the problems we have found here. Other people we know our perfectly happy. Some live in that expat bubble and don't try to integrate into Italian life. Others live in relative isolation on smallholdings (in a sort of hippy version of The Good Life). Others have Italian partners. Others have businesses that cater to foreign tourists. It's all fine. Just not for us.

Btw West Wales (Saundersfoot) etc is beautiful and Swansea could be worse, but if you want any large cities (for theatres and events etc) there aren't a lot of options if you go North... and you can't really go South or West...so you always have to go East towards Cardiff, and then across the bridge to Bristol and eventually London. The M4 is okay and there a mainline train track to London... but it's a long old trek to the Channel ports. And there aren't many airports (only Cardiff) within easy reach. There are some advantages to being more central.

Moses2013

Maybe for people wanting to go to larger events it wouldn't be the right area, but we always hear how crowded and busy the UK is although there are still areas where you can get away from the madness.
I'm in Ireland and can't remember the last time I went to a large event and most concerts would be in Dublin, so that would be a 2 hr 30 min drive. The closest city would be Galway for us and even Swansea has a 3 x bigger population. Taking the ferry would either be Cork, Dublin and in some cases maybe Rosslare which would be a 3 hr 40 drive and then you have 15-18 hours on the ferry instead of 6-11, so doesn't seem too bad. I suppose for Helen1964 who is from Northern Ireland, a place like Saundersfoot would offer the best of both worlds. You have a bit more rain but similar sunshine hours to Strasbourg, with the added benefit of being right next to the beach and could explore other parts of France. If you consider that the drive from Strasbourg to Roscoff is more than 10 hours, Wales is quite central

37100

It's pretty simple in Italy. You either pay into the system by work or through the UK for pensioners or you are not entitled to healthcare. After 5 yrs of paying -presenting a tax form isn't enough- you get 'free healthcare'. Some people do slip through, but with yearly cover for foreigners, it is soon picked up. Italian NHS is regional, not national so things can vary slightly. Post Brexit, all regions allow Brits to pay voluntarily into the system, but this does not give you a EHIC card valid for others countries.
Covid means, at least my region, most things are now online so it's easier for the gov depts to check.

C.2s

kinda... nothing is ever that simple in Italy :-)

If you are employed - okay. Although it's always been a little more complicated than that depending on your job, because it's not simply a case of paying the equivalent of National Insurance, you have to pay in to the relevant scheme for your profession, and you have to establish what your income is through a system that is based on the idea that everyone falls into traditional categories of work. So if, like me, you work online on a semi self employed basis through an agency based in Hong Kong and your clients are based in nearly every country in the world, and you're paid in US dollars... and you therefore cannot show all the paperwork that the authorities expect - well then it's not very simple.

If you are of pension age and receiving the state pension in your country of origin and that is in the EU - yes, also fine. If you have a private pension and investments in various forms (shares etc) you also don't fit into a neat little box that the authorities expect... and again it's not very simple.

It's interesting what you say about paying into the system voluntarily. It's always been possible to do that (also preBrexit). But I thought that this isn't possible in some regions (Umbria?).

philat98

Yes Umbria did not allow voluntary contributions before Brexit. I enrolled by making myself self employed on a minimum wage. The CGIL did all the paperwork.

Red Eric

I know it's irrelevant given what else you've posted but (ever the pedant ) on this point alone, are you sure that's the case?

A number of EU countries (including the one I live in) work on a similar basis with regard to forced succession of all or part of an estate but there is provision in EU law for this to be overridden in the case of foreign nationals provided it is expressly stated in their will that they wish for the law of their nationality to apply (or one / another of their nationalities, in the case of them having more than one, or also being a citizen of the member state in which they die).

This was adopted by all EU member states with the exception of (I think) the UK, Ireland & Denmark.

Moses2013

Some good infor here: You can choose the law of your country of nationality to apply to your inheritance
https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizen...e/index_en.htmSample story:
Brian is an Irish pensioner who moved to France upon retirement, where he owns a house and has been living for more than 8 years – the last 5 with his partner Anne.

As Brian lived in France, it may be convenient for Brian's heirs to settle the inheritance with a notary in France. French law will in principle govern Brian's inheritance as France was the last country where he lived. French law will thus determine who is to inherit, including what shares of the estate should be reserved for Brian's children and what are Anne's rights to the estate given that Brian and Anne were not married.

Irish law gives Brian more freedom to decide who should inherit his estate. That is why he decides to indicate in his will that Irish law should apply to his inheritance, and designates Anne to inherit all of his French property.

C.2s

Thanks to both of you for the previous two comments. Never heard of that. You learn something new every day 😄 Of course, I'm fairly sure that imaginary Brian might find that easier in Ireland than in Italy... it's not always the case that it's easy to get anyone in Italian officialdom to accept anything that's not how it's "always" done. But nevertheless it is useful and relevant because we're not talking about selling our Italian property , or at least not at first, but instead keeping it as a holiday home. It would still be difficult for our relatives to navigate their way through the process of selling the house and disposing of our stuff if we snuff it, but at least we could use our UK wills to nominate one person to manage it all

37100

A few years ago, the off spring of a well known wealthy Brit resident in Italy (he had a title, but I can't remember his name)went to court because he left them nil. They wanted, based on their father's place of residency, the Italian forced inheritance applied. They lost.
The recommendation for a UK will is for you to have it translated and notarised here in Italy. This saves beneficiaries a lot of immediate hassle of having to navigate an unknown system.