Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

A bad day ...

1 GBP = 1.09974 EUR
1 EUR = 0.909309 GBP

droopsnout

A better day ...

1 GBP = 1.10885 EUR
1 EUR = 0.901835 GBP

Merrywidow

Droopsnout - you are doing a stirling job - thanks! Where have all our mates gone, things are very quiet on this thread. I am still full of cold but I am on top of it. Went to see my mother this afternoon, that set me back days!!!!

Merrywidow

Hi LesD - sorry for the delay but I have been poorly and not very chatty the last few days. Sorry your KLM experience was below par. I was on British Airways, seats lovely, bags of leg room, but all we got on the plane was a bag of nibbles and a glass of wine.

How did you find Schiphol? I was thinking of you as I trawled thru the place looking for some goodies. I buy Salmon eggs in the Deli - my one true vice. I sit at home with a spoon and the jar and indulge. For lunch in the Amsterdam Cafe I had two croquettes on bread - only the Dutch can make such scumptious fare!!!!!On the way over at Gatwick I sat at the shellfish bar and had 6 oysters and a glass of wine - HEAVEN. I guess this should be posted on Ski-ers and Ska-ters but who cares. Its now back to sobriety 'cause I put on 4lbs in Tenerife and they now have to come off (and some).

I have a treadmill in my conservatory that has been feeling very neglected of late - so I am going to have to heave my body in its direction and get walking. I still have visions of my younger brother in law running 10 k's on it every day when he is here - the mere thought brings me out in a sweat! Hey Ho - no pain - no gain.

carrots

Hello everyone!

I last posted to this thread in Sept 2006 but I have been following all your comings and goings by means of the daily e-mail notification and have recently done a marathon re-read of the whole thread. (Phew!)

Since I last posted I have been in Australia twice and in the UK (son) and Zurich (daughter) several times a year. But most of my time has been taken up watching a terrific French artisan taking this old house apart and putting it back together again. As this involved parting with enormous amounts of money, I felt I had nothing much to say on the topic of money-saving!

However, the main part of the house is now done and when the weather improves the rest of the furniture - presently in the woodshed and storeroom - can be brought into the house. I hope that after six months or so the dust will have subsided.

Before you think this is totally off-topic, I do have a question. I was wondering if any of the French contingent use an agent to deal with their tax. It is now that time of the year and it blights my life. I wish I could do it myself, but I find myself at the mercy of an incommunicative agent who I think is more interested in UK clients who are setting up a business. Tax on my State Pension and on my Teachers Pension is paid in the UK, everything else here in France. As a result, I have to pay this person twice in order to be legal. Are there any courses one can take to learn how to do it oneself? Or is it better to fork out to an agent? (I haven't been able to find out what the agent's liability is if something wasn't correct.)

So that's my question.

But before I go, I'd just like to say that if you're driving to one of the more northern ports, I'm very well placed in the centre of France for a drop-in or a stop-over. I feel I know the regular posters to this thread so well and I would love to meet you!

Best regards, Barbara

droopsnout

Hi, Barbara.

Lovely to hear from you.

As you probably remember from your long read (!), I'm also an ex-teacher with a pension, and also in France. My financial affairs are very simple, and so I have never used anyone to help me with my tax return.

In February, in the UK, my wife and I will be seeing a solicitor to make a long overdue will, however. We will still need to see a French notaire to make a French will at some stage.

So what have I done about my tax return for the last six years?

The first year, I popped along to the estate agency where we bought the house, as they offered to help. It turned out to be very perfunctory help, but she assured me it was all that was required. There was no comeback.

Since then, and not trusting said estate agent any more, I have done the return myself. It's not easy, though, and I'm sure I've made mistakes, though, frankly, the sums involved are so small that I don't think they'll be sending the CRS after me!

I must have got something wrong the year before last, because I ended up paying 80 euros in income tax. But last time round, I used a guide from the newspaper Connexion (http://www.connexionfrance.com/). The guide was issued as part of the paper last year, and I believe that it can be bought separately on the website.

It helped me a good deal, and I have no income tax to pay here.

But I am puzzled about why you need to do your tax declaration now. I presume it is at the request of your agent. But the forms for completion are generally sent out out by the authorities around May, and in fact I do my declaration online. Then, towards the end of the calendar year, you receive an"Avis d'imposition", later followed by the issue of your bills for Taxes Foncières and Taxe d'habitation.

I don't know if your affairs are more complex than mine, but if you have only your pension and State pension, a couple of current accounts and a couple of savings accounts, and nothing much else, I don't see that the expense of the agent is justified, unless you are of an anxious disposition and wish to be free of all pressures and doubts.

Of course, if you have income here from a gîte or something, then you are well advised to use an accountant. But why should you have to pay twice? I do feel that you may be being taken for a ride here, but you will know much better than I, of course.

Glad your home renovation is taking shape. Good luck with everything. I'm travelling north to Dunkerque on 9 Feb (probably), going up the A20 roughly from Montauban to Paris. Is that near to you? We would perhaps be better able to stop for a natter on the way back again, but I'm not sure yet when that will be.

If you'd like to discuss this more, drop me a PM and I'll send you my email address.

donny-gal

Hi

Yes I am wondering something similar in Spain we have a solicitor who does our "property tax" as we are non residents, costs 122€ a year for the fiscal/solicitor, but we can go and ask them any questions all through the year. Keep thinking it is not necessary but seem to think we have been told we have to have representation in Spain for when we are not there. They automatically tax non-residents presuming they rent out their properties, even if they do not (we don't).

Mmmmmmmm now should I plan a MSE tour to Spain, calling at Kent, mid-France, southern France, and then after a break at our place, going up a mountain in Southern Spain. There is also the return trip to us on the Spanish coast! :rotfl:

DG

droopsnout

Sounds fun to me!!

clearmydebts

Hi all,

Haven't dropped by in a while (although I have been reading!). Just thought I would update all of you on our recent trip to Spain. We were there for the weekend last weekend as we hadn't been to Barcelona since Sept 2007. We went to look at some land (a good bit outside the city) and fell in love with the area. I was also surprised at how much Spanish I remembered as I have been very slack at practising it since our last trip.

Anyway, the visit only re-confirmed our love for that area and our desire to build over there. Unfortunately we don't have the budget to match at the moment and the exchange rate isn't helping.

The plan at the moment is to stay where we are until June 2010 (as I do a part-time college course and finish then) and to review it then to see what jobs we can do over there. We plan to go over more often though, as I think it is important to remind ourselves of what we love about the area.

We would also plan to rent their first as well. Hope everyone else is well and had a good Christmas!

seven-day-weekend

Well, hi and welcome Barbara and yet another couple here living on a Teachers' Pension, although it is my husband who is the retired Teacher and not me.

Tax...oh please don't mention it.

I have tried to get us registered for Tax purposes in Spain. Tax on Teachers' Pension has to be paid in UK so there is only my husband's small IB payment liable for tax her in Spain and this is too small an amount to have to pay any. We also do not have to pay any of the property taxes as our assets are below the threshold and also we are Spanish Residents. So no tax to pay here in Spain, but it is still advisable (and in fact from this year compulsory) to register.

BUT ...The Inland Revenue (or whatever they are called these days) sent us a bi-lingual form to give to the Spanish Tax Offices. I gave it to a local gestor (para-legal) who everybody uses and we asked him to register us with the Hacienda (tax office).

He didn't know what to do with the form. I tried to explain (even employing a translator), but he still didn't get it. Also he insisted we had to declare the Teachers' Pension, which we don't. He then asked us what we lived on if the Teachers' Pension didn't have to be declared. We said, the Teachers' Pension! So, he says, well then, you have to declare it as income!:mad:

So, we told him not to bother and at some point have to find another gestor but I think we'll find one a bit less 'rural'. However this will cost much more so as yet we have done nothing about it.

We also thought we could go to the Tax Offices ourselves, but we can't find which forms to get or which of three offices to go to. No-body seems to know what we are talking about. None of the expats we know who have no tax to pay have registered and think we are a bit crazy for trying to do so.

It is something that always plays on my mind and I hope we can get it sorted out soon. I think in my darkest moments it might even be worth paying the expensive solicitor that our friends used who sorted it out for them in no time (but charges 250 euros an hour!):eek:

Watch this space.......