Perhaps, for such complex tax affairs a socially conscious person might have thought of taking a direct approach to a firm whose business it is, rather than asking some unknown randoms online and then bitching them up when they attempt to help, but what do I know, eh.
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Dan Miller didn’t help - he was rude and discourteous. The moderator told him off, I didn’t mention your name, as you were not - and you didn’t give me any tax advice. Stay objective. i wanted pointers not advice. There is such an expression as: I don’t know. I don’t bitch and I think you can see that.
I didn’t mention in my response that you had told me that UK National Health was residency based, I took it as a simple mistake. There are actually exceptions and you didn’t mention those and I was an exception and you apologised. Remember ?
Are you in an expat bubble?
I’m glad you have your situation sorted. It seemed quite complex, so good to have found a firm with the right experience.
However, I always feel you have to try to inform yourself too even if this sometimes means taking on a mixed bag of information first. And in general people here are trying to be helpful.
But experts aren’t infallible either, so you need to know enough yourself to ask the right questions. We have an accountancy firm dealing with our business and this year they made a fairly significant mistake. It was only because we had enough knowledge that we spotted the mistake and managed to get it rectified.
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What I find difficult is that you haven’t actually read my mail. I didn’t actually ask about tax on this site - I asked about the relationship of income to the application for the Carte Vitale and I wondered which box to tick? I had just received the form. I was a new person in France and was ignorant of things and so started with this site. I got the answer - it might have been from you and so I followed that. It was people on the site who chose to chip in with tax advice, to tell me that I should be registered, that I could be working on the black (more than one! So you must have noticed many people doing it!). I had observed the limitations of this site, as you say, but it was not being observed by certain site members - who took upon the themselves the judgemental task of telling me off. Dan Miller was particular insulting and reproduced part of my web site without asking me. I knew what was on my site as I wrote it - so was it a shaming exercise? i considered him discourteous and also aggressive. I am repeating this information because you have not read the story you are replying to. I acquired the information for myself about tax, and did the decent thing, and did find help independent of this site. The only difference between your reply and Véronique’s is that yours is reasonable language and hers is a bit acidic to say the least. It seems to me that you are standing up for the limitations of this site (which I agree with) but certain people on the site are not practising that.
I have told my story on this site as it unfolded. It is not bitching: it is just my story, my experience. Things are like that in life. Not everything works out nicely. Being adult, rather than reactionary, about the difficulties of life is not a bad thing. As it so happens my tax is simple. I work in a diverse and imaginative way, but actually, because I do everything myself and do not employ anyone, I am a simple ’travailleuse indépendante’ !!! What could be simpler?
I recommended Cabinet Henderson because they dealt simply with my affairs and were efficient. I also mentioned the limitations of this site at the same time, and in this i agree with you. I didn’t know about any links with CPAM and just asked the question on this site. I got a barrage of replies of people acting like tax consultants when they were not.
The point I’d like to make is that I have received two mails on this subject, each apparently supporting the other - and neither has the grace to admit to my unpleasant, I would say, bullying experience. Nor the grace to realise that the question you are answering for me, was not asked by me in the first place.
Can you please provide the link to the previous thread you are referring to?
Thank you.
I believe it’s this one Cat
It was a very specific situation and not really appropriate to ask advice on a forum IMHO. The original question was
Perhaps a little unfair of the OP to expect an answer to her question about healthcare and no discussion of the tax issues since you can’t really separate tax and healthcare since healthcare depends firstly on which country you’re tax resident in, and secondly whether your income is earned or unearned ie are you actif or inactif. And the OP seems to have recognised this since she herself mentioned tax, salary slips and employment status in her post.
But I think posters failed to appreciate that the situation was non standard, and insisted on keeping trying to apply simple rules that didn’t apply here.
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Let’s stop the witch hunt. I posted parts of a web site that stated that someone worked in France when they had claimed that they did not. That was to support the fact that it was usual for work carried out in France to be taxed in France.
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Non, moi je suis française de souche 
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I think you must have me confused with someone else, I didn’t actually tell you anything at all, because I didn’t say anything on your previous health-insurance related thread.
I am not an ‘expat’ not English, not retired…
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Yes, you’re right - I may have confused you with someone else - it might be Stella … but the info came from this web site.
Brenda… Nope, it was not me… UK National Health is not an area I know anything about. 
For questions re French stuff (eg “Setting up in France”) my general advice is to go to the appropriate office (CPAM/Tax/whatever) … and speak with someone face to face… and that was the advice I gave to you. 
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In answer to the Title… I reckon there is no Fool’s Guide… just folk (of all nationalities) who have been-there and done-that…
On this forum, each person throws their own experiences/thoughts into the mix… and the results will be generally chewed-on and swallowed … or chewed-on and then spat-out… 
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Well, apologies if I got the names wrong. But your advice was not possible to follow as my local office didn’t take phone calls on this issue. I had to write to CPAM which I did in late November 2019, who sent me a form, which I filled in, sending it back with S1 and other documents required. I received notification of my Carte Vitale a few days ago. So about 2 and a half months. Not bad I thought.
Brenda…yes, you did get the name wrong = apology accepted.
CPAM will give appointments for face-to-face meetings, but you do have to phone to make the appointment. They will not discuss issues over the phone as a general rule.
If the issue involved Carte Vitale - I am surprised that you were not able to make an appointment. I agree that form-filling can be a nightmare, which is why it needs to be fully explained at a personal meeting. Your French would have been sufficient in that situation, I’m sure.
anyway, you are sorted now, so that is good.
I wonder if it differs region by region? I never made an appointment nor did I phone up. I wrote a short letter to the local CPAM, they sent me a form. I sent off my S1 with the documents and the form and I didn’t speak to a single person. I received the notification just over two months later.
Brenda Crowther
The point is Brenda (or Helena), this is a community website, not a “pay for professional advice” site. Thus any ‘advice’ you receive will be individual’s opinions, thoughts and experiences. And some of the ‘team’ such as @Stella and @vero go out of their way to help people out.
I personally found your complaints about the ‘advice from the site’ bordering on the rude and I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to the team members (and potentially others) if they felt the same.
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My response was conditioned by the bullying I received from one member. I didn’t see you making much of that? What about an apology on behalf of the site for that?
On reflection, Catherine, I understand that this is a site which doesn’t offer professional service and I didn’t expect to find that. And of course I said in my first email that I didn’t mind mistakes. I really felt I had made that clear. Then I must say, what was it that I expected to find on this site? I expected to find the way to the door of the problem so that I might open it myself and do the work. But I did have a bad experience, and it was truly not very nice, and even the moderator (at least I thought it was a moderator) told this man to stop it, as I did. This man behaved as if he knew everything! I expect my responses are totally coloured by this and I understand that there are helpful people here. Whilst I am sorry that I may have spread these feelings out onto others, please be aware that I did have a rotten experience, and these things happen. And this time, it happened to me.
Hi. I have had/am having a fairly onerous time registering with Urssaf. ( Urssaf Limousin is taking over from La Maison des Artistes). I won’t bore you with more details but it now turns out I need to get my social security number from Ameli/CPAM. None of this saga was helped by the fact that in my ignorance I got the social security number and the fiscal tax number mixed up,thinking they were one and the same. So as far as an idiots guide is concerned I am now aware of three numbers: my Siret, Fiscal number and social security number. If I am missing any others do let me know! I would I think be further ahead if I had known from the get go 
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Mmmm… …
these numbers are easily confused… you are not the first…