New regions among changes for 2016
Less tax, more speed cameras... we take a look at what's new this year for residents and second home-owners in France
SIMPLIFICATION and convenience in daily life is the aim of many of the changes coming in 2016.
Your local shops may be open a few more Sundays a year, your children may be learning languages at school earlier and you may want to keep an eye out for speed cameras even when they are on the other side of the road.
It starts on New Year’s Day when France wakes up to 13 instead of 22 regions in a bid to streamline local government – but residents will have to wait a few months before the new names are finalised. The departments have not changed but are shared out within the new regions. The aim is to help the councils plan strategically across larger areas and be more effective and less wasteful.
La Métropole du Grand Paris – a new intercommunal grouping – comes into being on January 1. It consists of Paris and the petite couronne plus parts of the grande couronne. This ‘greater Paris’ zone will have a conseil métropolitain of about 210 councillors and will deal with planning strategies across the zone, accommodation policies, economic development and protection of the air and environment.
For the self-employed, measures to bring closer the regimes of auto-entrepreneur and the ‘classic micro-entreprise’ come to a logical conclusion with the two merging - both are to be known officially as micro-entrepreneurs.
Plans to introduce income tax at source will advance with a consultation and a view to a bill later this year. Eight million people will pay less income tax than in 2015 due to new reduction measures and more rural ‘one-stop-shops’ are to open to help people deal with utility bills and paperwork.
Communes which are mobile phone blackspots should finally be able to get a signal. Regulated energy tariffs are abolished as of January for most business users. The tariffs were fixed in agreement with the government by the historic providers (EDF and GDF) and firms should by now have chosen a market rate one.
The January print edition of Connexion - on sale now - is packed with information about life in France including a two-page focus on what's new in 2016, with changes affecting residents and second home-owners in areas from healthcare and business to benefits and tax.
It is on sale in newsagents now or as a .pdf download for €3.80.
