Can I ask if anyone has a summary of the government agency URSSF, written or explained in English. I have attempted to ask them direct, but have not received a reply.
Happy Summer everybody ! Robert Best
@Robby
Just gone through my URSSAF folder and canât find what you seek⊠which doesnât mean such doesnât exist, of course.
Meanwhile, is there a particular question about URSSAF which someone on the Forum might be able to help you with ???
https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/particulier-espace.html
https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/independant-espace.html
Here is the full explanation of URSSAFâs raison dâĂȘtre
https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/decouvrir-lurssaf.html
Basically they deal with collecting and redistributing social security contributions in line with contribuablesâ rights and obligations.
If you bear in mind that URSSAF stands for Union de recouvrement sécurité sociale allocations familiales, then they do pretty much what it says on the tin.
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Hi Stella
I guess I am not entirely sure why I am obliged to pay into it !!
Is it a form of social security ? Or am I totally wrong?
best regards Robert
@Robby
Think about where your income comes from⊠do you work or rent-out property (gites/b&b etc)⊠no personal details needed on the forum, just trying to figure which heading of URSSAF you come under.
certain incomes are liable to Social Charges and URSSAF collects them. (thatâs roughly how I recall things)
I believe that an Employer will normally handle this, so perhaps you are âself-employedâ⊠Iâm just nudging your memory, trying to help you make the linkâŠ
Thanks so much.
Hi Stella
My wife arrived in France, now as permanent residents, and receive relatively small pensions from Switzerland.
I am English, and my wife is Swiss.
Thanks for your help.
As a general rule, everybody who lives in France and is covered by the French health service will pay contributions unless either their healthcare costs are covered via an S1 by the health service of a different country, or they are exonerated from paying because they are pensioners or their total household income is below the threshold.
If you have reached retirement age and retired and are in receipt of pensions I do not think you should have to pay cotisations on your pension income.
But if you have any kind of earned income from France or abroad, I believe that would be subject to cotisations.
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Iâm not sure what agreements Switzerland has with FranceâŠ
Youâve presumably already been in CPAM or somesuch⊠as I think youâve told us youâve been here a few years.
Has this URSSAF just started? and might this be due to a change in your circumstances (which youâve presumably reported somewhere or on-line)
None of us likes to think weâre paying more than we should, so youâre quite right to query.
You might want to check through emails/correspondence since I canât see URSSAF charging you without some sort of contactâŠ
Thankyou so much, thatâs really useful information. In a way I feel that morally I should make a contribution, to what we feel is a very generous healthcare service.
I will have to give it some thought.
best regards Robert
Information is shared each year between URSSAF and the tax office. URSSAF knows the exact sources and amounts of your income from your annual dĂ©claration, and the invoices they send out are based on that. Normally there would not be a mistake unless the information on your annual declaration is incomplete or something has been entered into the wrong box. That said, of course mistakes are always possibleâŠ
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Indeed, this is how we became linked to URSSAF for a time.
We had a change of circumstances, declared everything on the Annual Declaration of WWide Revenue (with guidance from our local Credit Agricole) and âthe changeâ resulted in correspondence from URSSAF to discuss what was going to happen⊠so there were no surprises, not in our case.
Is this a new demand? There are two reasons I can think of.
The first is that if your healthcare should be paid by Switzerland, but you havenât had it registered as such, then as a retired inactive you can be asked to contribute to the French system via URSAFF. We used to receive an annual bill of around 9% of our income above âŹ20k, until we reached an age where the cover kicked in from the UK in parallel with the pension as we had paid into that system all our lives. Might this be a possibility?
The other thought is that you recently said that you had signed up with AirBnB for your bed and breakfast accommodation? AirBnB have to report income to tax authorities and also collect and pay taxe de séjour in most areas. So if you have had bookings via Air this might have triggered the contact from URSAFF.
Bed and breakfast business is always considered to be professional, there is no non-professional option. So you will always be liable to pay cotisations on your income, unless well below threshold and you have declared this And the way it can work is that they will take a single monthâs income and multiply it by 12 to determine an annual income on which to charge cotisations. Did you realise that? And have you done your registration and Siret number?
Hello Jane
Thanks so much for your response.
No we have been paying these charges since we arrived in France five years ago.
We have completely left Switzerlandâs healthcare system. In Switzerland nothing is free ! Their health charges are extremely high.
I was never in England long enough to attempt a claim for NHS support (S1).
Yes we have signed up to airBnB, and have a siret number now, but of course we have been paying URSSF for the last five years.
I certainly didnât realise that my cotisations could be estimated over the year, because we only plan to offer accommodation over the Summer
period. Gosh, sounds like I shouldnât have signed up with AirBnB in the first place !!
best regards Robert
If you have been paying these charges for the last 5 years then it sounds like it is the standard cotisation for people who do not have jobs or self-employment. It is your contribution to the French social security regime, mainly for your health cover bit I think a small amount also for otjer charges. (even thoâ you will never see a penny of the most of the allowances and benefits you can have a warm and fuzzy feeling from contributing to the wellbeing of others).
This explains the cotisation:
https://www.urssaf.fr/portail/home/espaces-dedies/beneficiaire-de-la-puma.html
So donât worry too much about AirBnB. But may be worth double checking you have done everything right re your BnB.
Thanks so much Jane.
I think paying a small amount is the least we can do.
Best regards. Robert
Have you called them to ask?
I spoke with the URSSAF in Alsace when we moved here two years ago (as Iâm employed by a UK company) and although they were hard to get hold of they were very, very helpful when you did get through.
Thanks Gareth
I did try a couple of times, to no avail. Iâll keep at it.
Robert
@Robby
At first I chuckled, when I finally realized that youâd been paying URSSAF for some years and (seemingly) only now got round to querying it⊠
then I thought about it more deeplyâŠ
and I reckon that itâs a good idea for all of us to look at our various out-goings from time to time, just to check that they are essential and/or best value for money.
Iâm certainly going to peer through my various contracts/subscriptions and bits and bobs⊠these days âevery pennyâ/euro is even more important than ever.
cheers
I remember how frustrating it was trying to get through to someone, so I feel your pain. It was such a relief when I finally did get through.
Another thought⊠URSSAF have a Twitter account. Not sure if you use that but perhaps another angle worth exploring?