Practical

As a married couple, are there inheritance planning advantages to buying a home through an SCI property company?  R.C.

I am a micro-entrepreneur and am going to go over the limit this year when I must start charging VAT. Does that mean I must charge VAT retrospectively to all my clients from the start of the year? L.D.

We are British and live in France. Will our inheritance or tax status change if we take French nationality?  G.R.

Is it still possible to top up a UK state pension while living in France? I have heard it has changed and will Brexit affect this?  P.W.

Sponsored feature: Therapist Melissa Martyn reviews the results of the Mental Health Foundation’s 2018 study which was an online poll undertaken by YouGov, and had a sample size of 4,619 respondents. This is the largest known study of stress levels in the UK.

I am a retired Irish citizen and will be retiring to France – I’m an ‘early retiree’ so don’t have a state pension or S1 form yet. Will I be able to join the French Puma healthcare system?  H.S.

An enhanced mobile phone location system that will automatically transmit a caller’s  location to emergency services is to launch in France before the end of the year.

Bills for the homeowners’ local property tax – taxe foncière – are coming up for payment on October 15, but in most cases should not have risen steeply compared to 2018.

I get a lot of junk mail at my second home. Is there anything I can do?

If I allow house-sitters to live in my house out of season, are there any tax/insurance implications?

As a married couple, are there inheritance planning advantages to buying a home through an SCI property company?  R.C.

Postal services across the world should follow France’s lead and offer visits to elderly residents, says a Connexion reader who lives in Australia and set up regular calls on her father.

Lunch menus at schools across France will soon feature at least one completely meat-free day every week.

The unemployment rate in France went down earlier this year for the first time in six years. It means that it has dropped from its record of 10.5% in 2013 to 8.5% (March-June 2019 figure). But the rate is still one of the highest in Europe, although behind Greece, Spain and Italy. We look at two schemes that France uses to get people into work, including a network of 110 “pretend” offices where 7,000 people go to “work” every day across the country.

Businesses now have a single site to declare turnover and pay social charges.