This French Life

British couple find 16th Century coins in wall during building work

A BRITISH couple got a bit of a surprise when doing some renovation work on an old coach house in south west France.

As Ron Whetton, who lives in Castillonnès, worked away on a wall he discovered a collection of Spanish gold coins dating from the 16th Century in a small cloth purse.

He cried out to his wife, Jennie, to come and take a look and they couldn't believe their eyes, with the date on one of the coins saying 1590.

The couple run a small hotel business called the Cours de Thomazeau and were undertaking some building work on a coach house that stands opposite the property, they have written more about their treasure trove discovery on their website.

UK nationals who sold property in France urged to act after changes to ‘social charges’ rule

FRANCE has one of the highest percentages of property owned by people not native to the country, with over three million French properties, or 10% of the national housing stock, owned by non-French nationals, writes Guillaume Barlet.

About 2.7 million of those properties are owned by EU citizens, with the British being the nation with the largest number. This means any change to property laws or taxes in France is likely to affect thousands of Britons.

A French Law passed on 16 August 2012, forces all residents of the European Union and EFTA to pay social contributions of 15.5% on a capital gain arising from the sale of property.

These charges are levied in addition to the existing 19% Capital Gains Tax applied to all sales since 17 August 2012. However, these contributions give no rights to social benefits in France.

Experts in the French property market were concerned the new charges could suppress the French housing market in areas where non-French ownership of property was common.

However, others stated French property law and tax rates change regularly, and many owners buy with the intention of not selling for a quick profit, and as such would not be overly bothered by the new social charges.

The opening of an infringement procedure against France by the European Commission, and the opinion issued by Advocate General Sharpston at the Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) means there is a high probability that the social security contributions on capital gains of French property is not compliant with the law of the European Union.

This means that any sale completed on or after 17 August 2012 could have incurred 15.5% on the capital gain which the ECJ is likely to regard as unlawful, and taxpayers in the EU outside France could claim a refund. This includes the 7,000 British nationals estimated to have sold property in France in 2014.

Under these conditions, a claim should be filed as early as possible with the tax authorities to preserve the rights of taxpayers and, should the ECJ decision and/or a change in French legislation be favourable, to obtain restitution of levies wrongly paid.

While it may still be possible in certain specific circumstances to also claim for sales that occurred in 2012, the rules are still unclear and it is strongly advisable to file the claim by 31 December 2014 for sales completed in 2013.

In the examples below, an EU taxpayer not resident in France would be eligible to claim the sum highlighted.

Guillaume Barlet is a London-based French lawyer (independent juriste), consultant and head of the French desk at Cubism Law.

Legislation to end winter fuel allowance for UK expats begins progress in Parliament

A CHANGE in regulations that will see an end to the winter fuel allowance for British expats in France has started its way through Parliament.

The Social Fund Winter Fuel Payment (Amendment) Regulations 2014 have been laid before Parliament today, and is set to come into force on September 21, 2015.

What it means is that pensioners living in France, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Malta, Gibraltar and Cyprus, will no longer get the winter fuel allowance from autumn of next year.

The first announcement was made in 2013 by the chancellor George Osborne, right, when he said that entitlement would be based upon a 'temperature test' and so UK pensioners living in countries in Europe that were warmer than the UK would no longer receive the £200-£300 payment.

But when it turned out that the temperature measurements for France included its territories in the Pacific and the Caribbean, there was a great deal of questioning about the validity of the proposal.

More: UK government says it will save £30m a year from changing expat entitlement to Winter Fuel Payments

How 30 British pensioners in the DOM-TOMs have been used to cut winter fuel payments to 60,000

Duke of Westminster sells stake in Paris flea market at a loss

Duke of Westminster takes 20m hit on Paris markets (via AFP)

Britain's Duke of Westminster has bailed out of an investment in two famous Paris antiques markets nursing a reported loss of over 20 million euros, it emerged on Tuesday. Jean-Cyrille Boutmy, owner of the Studyrama education and training group, confirmed…

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French ambassador's NY home on sale for $48 mn

French ambassador's NY home on sale for $48 mn (via AFP)

The French ambassador to the United Nations lives in a sumptuous, 18-room apartment at one of New York's most exclusive addresses -- but not for much longer. Belts are tightening, and the French government has put the stunning Park Avenue duplex on…

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CGT set to be charged on British property sold by overseas nationals and expats

IT looks increasingly likely that the UK Chancellor, George Osborne, will decide that capital gains tax (CGT) should be charged on British property sold by overseas nationals and expats.

In his autumn statement, on 5 December, the chancellor is expected to impose CGT on sales by wealthy foreign nationals, but also British people who are resident overseas and still have a property in the UK.

The Telegraph reports that the plan has been disclosed by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and would go some way to appease the Liberals who have seen their desires for increased taxes on multi-million pound properties squashed.

The new policy could see a capital-gains tax of 28 per cent on the sale of second homes in the UK that are owned by overseas investors, including expats, with an estimated £100 million raised by the tax.

House prices in France down 1.1% over past year

FROM the Notaires de France and their look at the French property market in the second quarter of 2013.

According to the Notaires-INSEE index, in the second quarter of 2013 the market for second-hand properties had fallen by 1.1% over a year: -1.2% for apartments and -1% for houses.

Compared to the previous quarter, based on provisional data corrected for seasonal variations, prices changed very little overall (+0.2%) falling slightly for apartments (-0.2%) and increasing 0.5% for houses.

In the greater Paris region, in the second quarter of 2013 the prices for older properties fell by 1.2% over a year (1.1% for apartments and 1.5% for houses). Over a quarter, they fell by 0.6% (provisional seasonally adjusted data). The fall was rather sharper for apartments (-0.7%) than for houses (-0.3%).

In the French provinces, the prices were down by 1.1% over a year in the second quarter of 2013. Unlike the greater Paris region, the fall was more pronounced for apartments (-1.3%) than for houses (-0.9%). Over a quarter, the seasonally adjusted prices are up (+0.6%): those for houses increased by 0.7% and those for apartments by 0.4%.

This slight increase brings an end to 6 consecutive quarters of decline and follows a stabilisation in the first quarter (the semi-finalized index is equivalent to -0.1%).

A third of French households struggling to pay energy bills

RISING costs are putting the squeeze on French households as a third say they have found it difficult to pay gas and electricity bills in the last three years.

Consumer watchdog, 60 Millions de Consommateurs, has undertaken a survey and found that 34% of respondents had faced problems paying their bills.

While eight out of ten say they have had to spend more on gas and electricity in recent years, with 60 Millions de Consommateurs stressing the importance of improving the insulation in homes to help cut costs.

Earlier this year there was a 5% increase in electricity bills, which will be followed by a similar 5% increase on 1 August 2014.

Related: French households saw energy costs increase by €200 last year

Heating with wood proving popular in French homes

THE use of wood as a heating source is proving more and more popular amongst French home owners.

Figures from ADEME, the energy ministry, show that 7.4 million homes in France use wood for heating, which compares to 5.9 million in 1999.

Half of these homes use wood as their major source of heating, and ADEME has raise questions about the age of some wood burning stoves in use.

They warn that many open fire places are in use and that older stoves can still be found in many homes, estimating that around 3.3 million stoves should be replaced to ensure wood is being burnt efficiently.

ADEME says that home owners should look out for the Flamme Verte label on new equipment when replacing old wood burning stoves.

Taxes foncières up by more than a fifth since 2007

IF you have seen your property tax, or taxes foncières, head up you are not alone as an organisation representing landlords says average costs have increased by 21 per cent.

A study by the Union Nationale de la Propriété Immobilière (UNPI) claims that between 2007 and 2012 the average cost of taxes foncières for French property owners has risen by more than a fifth.

UNPI says that the increase has risen faster than rents, wages and pensions and is calling on local authorities to put a brake on future hikes, and says that it should follow any rent increases.

Taxe foncière rates are decided by local authorities and are administered as an annual tax on the owner of the property, even if it is rented out to another person.