On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 23:52:22 +0200, David Off
wrote:


Dunno about that, planning regulations depend a lot on how well you know
the local mayor in my experience. From 2004 the property taxation
regime will change with a 26% tax on capital gains being levied directly
on the sale of property. Along with Notaires fees and other taxes this
will make some difference. This will surprise a lot of foreign property
investors in France. Maybe Ian knows some ways around this like
ownership though an Isle of Mann company?

Channel Islands and the Cayman is my preferred option :-) I presume
they'll be some rollover provision though so that'll be a chink to
slide into to. Failing that anyone selling just before the tax takes
effect is going to be open to offers :-)


But I blame the French government. They have created a dependency
culture in France where vast sections of the population receive state
aid, from engineering giants Alsthom to the 3 million or so civil

oh. a little bit of politics, I'd say it was totally up to the French
how they want to run their country but I'd question whether it's
consistent with EU membership (I'm thinking of their atitude to
breaching the Stability and Growth pact) and who exactly's going to
footing the bill. You'd have to say it's hardly different in Germany
despite their self-image.


Anyway the whole dependency culture has completely impoverished the
nation (social security budget 11 billion Euros in the red this year),
to the extent where people can't even afford to buy property in the own
country.

That's a different story, there's plenty of people in the UK who can't
afford to buy property as there is here in Switzerland.